lIHlFIi, 


r/v 


.];> 


'EDJ 


^5b 


Si?  ^^"^^ 


/ 


;. 


UCSB   LIBRARY 


W 


WMt  we  are  gtretcbes 

past  wbat  we  DOt     gB|| 

.          begonD  wbat 

^L          we  possess. 

^^rM               The   Greatest 

M^J. — 1            "^""**' 

v^^^^^^^^k'^ 

.sr%  "<  THE  World. 

^ 


Ibelpful   ^bouobts 

from 

1benr^  2)rummonb 


"  Nature  is  not  more  natural  to  my  body 
than  God  is  to  my  soul." 

"  It  is  the  deliberate  verdict  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  that  it  is  better  not  to  live  than  not  to 
love." 


Boston 

De  Wolfe,  Fiske   &  Co. 


TYPOGRAPHY    AND    PRESSWORK     BY 

S.    J.     PARKHILL    <S,    CO. 

BOSTON,    U.   S.   A. 


Ibelpful  XTbouobts 


(^Qstincnu 

The  expression  "  total  abstinence "  is  a 
strictly  biological  formula.  It  implies  the 
sudden  destruction  of  a  definite  portion  of 
Environment  by  the  total  withdrawal  of  all 
the  connecting-links.  Obviously,  of  course, 
total  abstinence  ought  thus  to  l3e  allowed  a. 
much  wider  application  than  to  cases  of 
"  intemperance."  It  is  the  only  decisive- 
method  of  dealing  with  any  sin  of  the  flesh.. 
The  very  nature  of  the  relations  makes  it 
absolutely  imperative  that  every  victim  of 
unlawful  appetite,  in  whatever  direction,  shall 
totally  abstain.  Hence  Christ's  apparently 
extreme  and  peremptory  language  defines  the 
only  possible,  as  well  as  the  only  charitable, 
expedient :  "  If  thy  right  eye  offend  thee, 
pluck  it  out,  and  cast  it  from  thee.  And  if 
thy  right  hand  offend  thee,  cut  it  off,  and 
cast  it  from  thee." 

Natural  Law :  "  Mortification." 


4  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

People  often  tell  boys  that  if  they  seek 
the  kingdom  of  God,  everything  else  is  going 
to  be  subtracted  from  them.  They  tell  them 
that  they  are  going  to  become  gloomy,  miser- 
able, and  will  lose  everything  that  makes  a 
boy's  life  worth  living  —  that  they  will  have 
to  stop  baseball  and  story-books,  and  become 
little  old  men,  and  spend  all  their  time  in 
going  to  meetings  and  in  singing  hymns. 
Now,  that  is  not  true.  Christ  never  said 
anything  like  that.  Christ  says  we  are  to 
"  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God,"  and  every- 
thing else  worth  having  is  to  be  added  unto 
us.  "  First !  " 

{^^juetment 

Nature  is  not  more  natural  to  my  body 
than  God  is  to  my  soul.  Every  animal  and 
plant  has  its  own  Environment.  And  the 
further  one  inquires  into  the  relations  of  the 
one  to  the  other,  the  more  one  sees  the  mar- 
vellous intricacy  and  beauty  of  the  adjust- 
ments. These  wonderful  adaptations  of  each 
organism  to  its  surroundings  —  of  the  fish  to 
the  water,  of  the  eagle  to  the  air,  of  the 
insect  to  the  forest-bed  —  and  of  each  part 
of  every  organism  —  the  fish's  swim-bladder, 
the  eagle's  eye,  the  insect's  breathing-tubes  — 
which  the  old  argument  from  design  brought 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  D 

home  to  us  with  such  enthusiasm,  inspire  us 
still  with  a  sense  of  the  boundless  resources 
and  skill  of  Nature  in  perfecting  her  arrange- 
ments for  each  single  life.  Down  to  the  last 
detail  the  world  is  made  for  what  is  in  it ; 
and  by  whatever  process  things  are  as  they 
are,  all  organisms  find  in  surrounding  Nature 
the  ample  complement  of  themselves.  Man, 
too,  finds  in  his  Environment  provision  for 
all  capacities,  scope  for  the  exercise  of  every 
faculty,  room  for  the  indulgence  of  each 
appetite,  a  just  supply  for  every  want.  So 
the  spiritual  man  at  the  apex  of  the  pyramid 
of  life  finds  in  the  vaster  range  of  his  En- 
vironment a  provision  as  much  higher,  it  is 
true,  as  he  is  higher,  but  as  delicately  adjusted 
to  his  varying  needs.  And  all  this  is  supplied 
to  him  just  as  the  lower  organisms  are  min- 
istered to  by  the  lower  environment,  in  the 
same  simple  ways,  in  the  same  constant  se- 
quence, as  appropriately  and  as  lavishly. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Environment." 

@di7ofution 

Why  should  Evolution  stop  with  the  Or- 
ganic? It  is  surely  obvious  that  the  com- 
plement of  Evolution  is  Advolution,  and  the 
inquiry,  Whence  has  all  this  system  of  things 
come  ?  is,  after  all,  of  minor  importance  com- 
pared with  the  question.  Whither  does  all 
tend  ?  Natural  Law  :  "  Classification." 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 


@gnofltiei0m 

The  Christian  apologist  never  further  misses 
the  mark  than  when  he  refuses  the  testimony 
of  the  Agnostic  to  himself.  When  the  Ag- 
nostic tells  me  he  is  blind  and  deaf,  dumb, 
torpid  and  dead  to  the  spiritual  world,  I  must 
believe  him.  Jesus  tells  me  that.  Paul  tells 
me  that.  Science  tells  me  that.  He  knows 
nothing  of  this  outermost  circle  ;  and  we  are 
compelled  to  trust  his  sincerity  as  readily 
when  he  deplores  it  as  if,  being  a  man  with- 
out an  ear,  he  professed  to  know  nothing  of 
a  musical  world,  or,  being  without  taste,  of  a 
world  of  art  The  nescience  of  the  Agnostic 
philosophy  is  the  proof  from  experience  that 
to  be  carnally  minded  is  Death. 

Natural  Law :  "  Death." 


Charity  is  only  a  little  bit  of  Love,  one  of 
the  innumerable  avenues  of  Love,  and  there 
may  even  be,  and  there  is,  a  great  deal  of 
charity  without  Love.  It  is  a  very  easy 
thing  to  toss  a  copper  to  a  beggar  on  the 
street ;  it  is  generally  an  easier  thing  than 
not  to  do  it.  Yet  Love  is  just  as  often  in 
the  withholding.  We  purchase  relief  from 
the  sympathetic  feelings  roused  by  the  spec- 
tacle of  misery,  at  the  copper's  cost.     It  is 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  / 

too  cheap  —  too  cheap  for  us,  and  often  too 
dear  for  the  beggar.     If  we  really  loved  him 
we  would  either  do  more  for  him,  or  less. 
The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

(^ftetnatii?es 

It  is  the  deliberate  verdict  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  that  it  is  better  not  to  live  than  not 
to  love.     The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

(gnimaf  (Yttan 

It  is  perfectly  astonishing,  when  one  thinks- 
of  it,  what  Nature  can  do  for  the  animal 
man — to  see  with  what  small  capital,  after 
all  a  human  being  can  get  through  the  world.. 
I  once  saw  an  African  buried.  According  to 
the  custom  of  his  tribe,  his  entire  earthly  pos- 
sessions —  and  he  was  an  average  commoner 
—  were  buried  with  him.  Into  the  grave, 
after  the  body,  was  lowered  the  dead  man's 
pipe,  then  a  rough  knife,  then  a  mud  bowl, 
and  last  his  bow  and  arrows  —  the  bowstring 
cut  through  the  middle,  a  touching  symbol 
that  its  work  was  done.  This  was  all.  Four 
items,  as  an  auctioneer  would  say,  were  the 
whole  belongings  for  half  a  century  of  this 
human  being.  No  man  knows  what  a  man  is 
till  he  has  seen  what  a  man  can  be  without, 
and  be  withal  a  man.  That  is  to  say,  no  man, 
knows  how  great  man  is  till  he  has  seen  how 
small  he  has  been  once.     Tropical  Africa. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 


It  is  well  to  remember  that  we  are  to  give 
our  bodies  a  living  sacrifice  —  not  a  half-dead 
sacrifice,  as  some  people  seem  to  imagine. 
There  is  no  virtue  in  emaciation. 

How  to  Learn  How. 


Men  tell  us  sometimes  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  an  Atheist.  There  must  be.  There 
are  some  men  to  whom  it  is  true  that  there 
is  no  God.  They  cannot  see  God  because 
they  have  no  eye.  They  have  only  an  abor- 
tive organ  atrophied  by  neglect. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Degfeneration." 


The  weight  of  a  load  depends  upon  the  at- 
traction of  the  earth.  But  suppose  the  attrac- 
tion of  the  earth  were  removed  ?  A  ton  on 
some  other  planet,  where  the  attraction  of 
gravity  is  less,  does  not  weigh  half  a  ton. 
Now  Christianity  removes  the  attraction  of 
the  earth,  and  this  is  one  way  in  which  it 
diminishes  men's  burden.  It  makes  them 
citizens  of  another  world.  What  was  a  ton 
yesterday    is    not    half    a    ton     to-day.       So 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 


without  changing  one's  circumstances,  merely 
by  offering  a  wider  horizon  and  a  different 
standard,  it  alters  the  whole  aspect  of  the 
world.  Pax   Vobiscum. 


(g>atriet0 

In  the  dim  but  not  inadequate  vision  of  the 
Spiritual  World  presented  in  the  AYord  of 
God  the  first  thing  that  strikes  the  eye  is  a 
great  gulf  fixed.  The  passage  from  the  Nat- 
ural World  to  the  Spiritual  World  is  hermet- 
ically sealed  on  the  natural  side.  The  door 
from  the  inorganic  to  the  organic  is  shut ;  no 
mineral  can  open  it ;  so  the  door  from  the 
natural  to  the  spiritual  is  shut,  and  no  man 
can  open  it.  This  world  of  natural  men  is 
staked  off  from  the  Spiritual  World  by  bar- 
riers which  have  never  yet  been  crossed  from 
within.  No  organic  change,  no  modification 
of  environment,  no  mental  energy,  no  moral 
effort,  no  evolution  of  character,  no  progress 
of  civilization,  can  endow  any  single  human 
soul  with  the  attribute  of  Spiritual  Life. 
The  Spiritual  World  is  guarded  from  the 
world  next  in  order  beneath  it  by  a  law  of 
Biogenesis :  Excejpt  a  man  he  horn  again, 
.  .  .  except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and 
of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  the  Kingdom  of 
God. 

Natural  Law :  "  Bioo-enesis." 


10  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

(gcauti^  of  C^axacUt 

Under  the  right  conditions  it  is  as  natural 
for  character  to  become  beautiful  as  for  a 
Hower ;  and  if  on  God's  earth  there  is  not 
some  machinery  for  effecting  it,  the  supreme 
gift  to  the  world  has  been  forgotten.  This 
is  simply  what  man  was  made  for.  With 
Browning :  "  I  say  that  Man  was  made 
to  grow,  not  stop."  Or  in  the  deeper  words 
of  an  older  Book :  '*  Whom  He  did  fore- 
know, He  also  did  predestinate  ...  to  be 
conformed  to  the  Image  of  His  Son." 

The  Changed  Life. 

(gcaut^  of  t^t  Unii?et0e 

As  a  mere  spectacle,  the  universe  to-day 
discloses  a  beauty  so  transcending  that  he 
who  disciplines  himself  by  scientific  work 
finds  it  an  overwhelming  reward  simply  to 
behold  it. 

Natural  Law :  "  Introduction." 

What  is  the  essential  difference  between 
the  Christian  and  the  not-a-Christian  —  be- 
tween the  spiritual  beauty  and  the  moral 
beauty  ?  It  is  the  distinction  between  the 
Organic  and  the   Inorganic.     Moral  beauty 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  11 

is  the  product  of  the  natural  man,  si^iritual 
beauty  of  the  spiritual  man.  And  these  two, 
according  to  the  law  of  Biogenesis,  are  sep- 
arated from  one  another  by  the  deepest  line 
known  to  Science.  This  Law  is  at  once  the 
foundation-  of  Biology  and  of  Spiritual  Relig- 
ion. And  the  whole  fabric  of  Christianity 
falls  into  confusion  if  we  attempt  to  ignore 
it.  The  Law  of  Biogenesis,  in  fact,  is  to 
be  regarded  as  the  equivalent  in  biology  of 
the  First  Law  of  motion  in  physics :  Every 
body  continues  in  its  state  of  rest,  or  of  uni- 
form motion  in  a  straight  line,  except  in  so  far 
as  it  is  compelled  hy  force  to  change  that  state. 

Natural  Law :  "  Classification." 


Q3e0innin00 

The  creation  of  a  new  heart,  the  renewing 
of  a  right  spirit,  is  an  omnipotent  work  of 
God.  Leave  it  to  the  Creator.  "  He  which 
hath  begun  a  good  work  in  you  will  perfect 
it  unto  that  day." 

The  Changed  Life, 


What  we  are  stretches  past  what  we  do, 
beyond  what  we  possess. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


12  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

QBefief  in  &ob 

I  say  that  man  believes  in  a  God  who  feels 
himself  in  the  presence  of  a  Power  which  is 
not  himself  and  is  immeasurably  above  him- 
self—  a  Power  in  the  contemplation  of 
which  he' is  absorbed,  in  the  knowledge  of 
which  he  finds  safety  and  happiness. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Death." 

t^t  (gtst 

Christ  tries  to  make  the  best  world  by  set- 
ting the  best  men  loose  upon  the  world  to  in- 
fluence it  and  reflect  Him  upon  it. 

What  is  a  Christian  ? 

The  Bible  is  a  product  of  religion,  not  a 
cause  of  it.  The  war  literature  of  America, 
which  culminated,  I  suppose,  in  the  publica- 
tion of  President  Grant's  life,  came  out  of  the 
war ;  the  war  did  not  come  out  of  the  litera- 
ture. And  so  in  the  distant  past  there  flowed 
among  the  nations  of  heathendom  a  small, 
warm  stream,  like  the  Gulf  Stream  in  the 
cold  Atlantic  —  a  small  stream  of  religion ; 
and  now  and  then,  at  intervals,  men,  carried 
along  by  this  stream,  uttered  themselves  in 
words.     The   historical    books    came   out  of 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  13 

facts  ;  the  devotional  books  came  out  of  ex- 
periences ;  the  letters  came  out  of  circum- 
stances ;  and  the  Gospels  came  out  of  all 
three.  That  is  where  the  Bible  came  from. 
It  came  out  of  religion ;  religion  did  not  come 
out  of  the  Bible.       The  Study  of  the  Bible. 

Q5itt$  a  (jnira<jfe 

Peopling  these  worlds  with  the  appropriate 
living  forms  is  virtually  miracle.  Nor  in  one 
case  is  there  less  of  mystery  in  the  act  than 
in  the  other.  The  second  birth  is  scarcely 
less  perplexing  to  the  theologian  than  the 
first  to  the  embryologist. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Biogenesis." 

Except  a  mineral  be  born  "  from  above  " 
—  from  the  Kingdom  just  above  it  —  it  can- 
not enter  the  Kingdom  just  above  it.  And 
except  a  man  be  born  "  from  above,"  by  the 
same  law  he  cannot  enter  the  Kingdom  just 
above  him.  There  being  no  passage  from 
one  Kingdom  to  another,  whether  from  inor- 
ganic to  organic  or  from  organic  to  spiritual, 
the  intervention  of  Life  is  a  scientific  neces- 
sity if  a  stone  or  a  plant  or  an  animal  or  a 
man  is  to  pass  from  a  lower  to  a  higher 
sphere.  The  plant  stretches  down  to  the 
dead  world  beneath  it,  touches  its   minerals 


14  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

and  gases  with  its  mystery  of  Life,  and  brings 
them  up  ennobled  and  transformed  to  the  liv- 
ing sphere.  The  breath  of  God,  blowing 
where  it  listeth,  touches  with  its  mystery  of 
Life  the  dead  souls  of  men,  bears  them  across 
the  bridgeless  gulf  between  the  natural  and 
the  spiritual,  between  the  spiritually  inorganic 
and  the  spiritually  organic,  endows  them  with 
its  own  high  qualities,  and  develops  within 
them  those  new  and  sweet  faculties  by  which 
those  who  are  born  again  are  said  to  see  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 

Natural  Law :  "Biogenesis." 

To  fall  in  love  with  a  good  book  is  one  of 
the  greatest  events  that  can  befall  us.  It  is 
to  have  a  new  influence  pouring  itself  into 
our  life,  a  new  teacher  to  inspire  and  refine 
us,  a  new  friend  to  be  by  our  side  always, 
who,  when  life  grows  narrow  and  weary,  will 
take  us  into  his  wider  and  calmer  and  higher 
world.  Whether  it  be  biography,  introduc- 
ing us  to  some  humble  life  made  great  by 
duty  done ;  or  history,  opening  vistas  into  the 
movements  and  destinies  of  nations  that  have 
passed  away  ;  or  poetry,  making  music  of  all 
the  common  things  around  us,  and  filling  the 
fields  and  the  skies  and  the  works  of  the  city 
and    the    cottage    with    eternal   meanings  — 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  15 

whether  it  be  these,  or  story-books,  or  relig- 
ious books,  or  science,  no  one  can  become  the 
friend  even  of  one  good  book  without  being 
made  wiser  and  better.  On  Books. 


Q5ot6etfan50 

The  physical  Laws  may  explain  the  inor- 
ganic world ;  the  biological  Laws  may  account 
for  the  development  of  the  organic.  But  of 
the  point  where  they  meet,  of  that  strange 
borderland  between  the  dead  and  living, 
Science  is  silent.  It  is  as  if  'God  had  placed 
everything  in  earth  and  heaven  in  the  hands 
of  Nature,  but  reserved  a  point  at  the  genesis 
of  Life  for  His  direct  aj)pearing. 

Natural  Law :  "  Biogenesis." 

There  is  no  analogy  between  the  Christian 
religion  and  Buddhism  or  the  Mohammedan 
religion.  There  is  no  true  sense  in  which  a 
man  can  say,  "  He  that  hath  Buddha  hath 
Life."  Buddha  has  nothing  to  do  with  Life. 
He  may  have  something  to  do  with  morality. 
He  may  stimulate,  impress,  teach,  guide,  but 
there  is  no  distinct  new  thing  added  to  the 
souls  of  those  who  profess  Buddhism.  These 
religions  may  be  developments  of  the  natural, 
mental,  or  moral  man.  But  Christianity  pro- 
fesses to  be  more.     It  is  the  mental  or  moral 


16  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

man  plus  something  else  or  some  One  else. 
It  is  the  infusion  into  the  Spiritual  man  of  a 
New  Life,  of  a  quality  unlike  anything  else 
in  Nature.  This  constitutes  the  separate 
Kingdom  of  Christ,  and  gives  to  Christianity 
alone,  of  all  the  religious  of  mankind,  the 
strange  mark  of  Divinity. 

Natural  Law :  "Biogenesis." 

Christ's  life  outwardly  was  one  of  the  most 
troubled  lives  that  was  ever  lived  :  tempest 
and  tumult,  tumult  and  tempest,  the  waves 
breaking  over  it  all  the  time  till  the  worn 
body  was  laid  in  the  grave.  But  the  inner 
life  was  a  sea'  of  glass.  The  great  calm  was 
always  there.  At  any  moment  you  might 
have  gone  to  Him  and  found  Rest. 

Pax  Vohiscum. 


We  fail  to  appreciate  the  meaning  of  spir- 
itual degeneration  or  detect  the  terrible  nat- 
ure of  the  consequences  only  because  they 
evade  the  eye  of  sense.  But  could  we  inves- 
tigate the  spirit  as  a  living  organism,  or  study 
the  soul  of  the  backslider  on  principles  of 
comparative  anatomy,  we  should  have  a  rev- 
elation of  the  organic  effects  of  sin,  even  of 


^0  fall  in  love 

witb  a  Q00t>  booft 
is  one  of  tbe 


Qteategt  events 
tbat  can 

befall  us. 


Their    FRrcNDSHiP. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  17 

the  mere  sin  of  carelessness  as  to  growth 
and  work,  which  must  revolutionize  our  ideas 
of  practical  religion.  There  is  no  room  for 
the  doubt  even  that  what  goes  on  in  the  body- 
does  not  with  equal  certainty  take  place  in 
the  spirit  under  the  corresponding  conditions. 
Natural  Law  :  "  Parasitism." 

Cause  an5  (Effect 

Things  are  so  arranged  in  the  original 
planning  of  the  world  that  certain  effects 
must  follow  certain  causes,  and  certain  causes 
must  be  abolished  before  certain  effects  can 
be  removed.  Pax  Vohisciun. 

The  Christian  life  is  not  casual,  but  causal. 
All  nature  is  a  standing  protest  against  the 
absurdity  of  expecting  to  secure  spiritual 
effects,  or  any  effects,  without  the  employ- 
ment of  appropriate  causes.  The  Great 
Teacher  dealt  what  ought  to  have  been  the 
final  blow  to  this  infinite  irrelevancy  by  a 
single  question  :  "  Do  men  gather  grapes  of 
thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles  ?  " 

Pax   Vobiscum. 

Ctxdtts 

The  perfection  of  unity  is  attained  where 
there  is  infinite  variety  of  phenomena,  infinite 
complexity  of  relation,  but  great   simplicity 


18  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

of  Law.  Science  will  be  complete  when  all 
known  phenomena  can  be  arranged  in  one 
vast  circle  in  which  a  few  well-known  Laws 
shall  form  the  radii,  these  radii  at  once  sep- 
arating and  uniting  —  separating  into  partic- 
ular groups,  yet  uniting  all  to  a  common 
centre. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Introduction." 


Nothing  that  happens  in  the  world  happens 
by  chance.  God  is  a  God  of  order.  Every- 
thing is  arranged  upon  definite  principles, 
and  never  at  random. 

Pax  Vohiscum. 

Try  to  give  up  the  idea  that  religion  comes 
to  us  by  chance  or  by  mystery  or  by  caprice. 
It  comes  to  us  by  natural  law,  or  by  super- 
natural law,  for  all  law  is  Divine. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


Not  more  certain  is  it  that  it  is  something 
outside  of  the  thermometer  that  produces  a 
change  in  the  thermometer,  than  it  is  some- 
thing outside  the  soul  of  man  that  produces 
a  moral  change  upon  him. 

The  Changed  Life. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  19 

Will-power  does  not  change  men.  Time 
does  not  change  men.  Christ  does.  There- 
fore "  Let  that  mind  be  in  you  which  is  also 
in  Christ  Jesus." 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Character 

It  is  not  said  that  the  character  will  de- 
velop in  all  its  fulness  in  this  life.  That 
were  a  time  too  short  for  an  Evolution  so 
magnificent.  In  this  world  only  the  cornless 
ear  is  seen  ;  sometimes  only  the  small  yet 
still  prophetic  blade. 

Natural  Law. 

Of  all  unseen  things,  the  most  radiant,  the 
most  beautiful,  the  most  divine,  is  character. 
The  Changed  Life. 

The  New  Testament  is  nowhere  more  im- 
pressive than  where  it  insists  on  the  fact  of 
man's  dependence.  In  its  view  the  first  step 
in  religion  is  for  man  to  feel  his  helplessness. 
Christ's  first  beatitude  is  to  the  poor  in  spirit. 
The  condition  of  entrance  into  the  spiritual 
kingdom  is  to  possess  the  child-spirit  —  that 
state  of  mind  combining  at  once  the  pro- 
foundest  helplessness  with  the  most  artless 
feeling    of    dependence.      Substantially   the 


20  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

same  idea  underlies  the  countless  passages  in 
which  Christ  affirms  that  He  has  not  come 
to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners,  to  repent- 
ance. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Environment.'" 

To  become  like  Christ  is  the  only  thing  in 
the  world  worth  caring  for,  the  thing  before 
which  every  ambition  of  man  is  folly,  and  all 
lower  achievement  vain.  Those  only  who 
make  this  quest  the  supreme  desire  and  pas- 
sion of  their  lives  can  even  begin  to  hope  to 
reach  it. 

The  Changed  Life. 

Christ  t^e  ^out<je  of  30^ 

Christ  is  the  source  of  Joy  to  men  in  the 
sense  in  which  He  is  the  source  of  Rest. 
His  people  share  His  life,  and  therefore  share 
its  consequences,  and  one  of  these  is  Joy. 
His  method  of  living  is  one  that  in  the  nature 
of  things  produces  Joy.  When  He  spoke 
of  His  Joy  remaining  with  us  He  meant  in 
part  that  the  causes  whicli  produced  it  should 
continue  to  act.  His  followers,  that  is  to 
say,  by  repeating  His  life  would  experience 
its  accompaniments.  His  Joy,  His  kind  of 
Joy,  would  remain  with  them. 

Pax  Vohiscum. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  21 


Christ:  ^^o  anh  OT^ete  30  ^e? 

Thank  God  the  Christianity  of  to-day  is 
coming  nearer  the  world's  need  !  Live  to 
help  that  on.  Thank  God  men  know  better, 
by  a  hair's-breadth,  what  religion  is,  what 
God  is,  who  Christ  is,  where  Christ  is !  Who 
is  Christ?  He  who  fed  the  hungry,  clothed 
the  naked,  visited  the  sick.  And  where  is 
Christ  ?  Where  ?  Whoso  shall  receive  a 
little  child  in  My  name  receiveth  Me.  And 
who  are  Christ's?  Every  one  that  loveth 
is  born  of  God. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


C^xiBi's  5nffuence 

There  is  only  one  great  character  in  the 
world  that  can  really  draw  out  all  that  is 
best  in  men.  He  is  so  far  above  all  others 
in  influencing  men  for  good  that  He  stands 
alone.  That  man  was  the  founder  of  Chris- 
tianity. To  be  a  Christian  man  is  to  have 
that  character  for  our  ideal  in  life,  to  live 
under  its  influence,  to  do  what  He  would 
wish  us  to  do,  to  live  the  kind  of  life  He 
would  have  lived  in  our  house,  and  had  He 
our  day's  routine  to  go  through. 

What  is  a  Christian  ? 


22  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

C^visfs  (JHanfine00 

You  would  be  surprised  when  you  come 
to  know  who  Christ  is,  if  you  have  not 
thought  much  about  it,  to  find  how  He  will 
fit  in  with  all  human  needs,  and  call  out  all 
that  is  best  in  man.  The  highest  and  man- 
liest character  that  ever  lived  was  Christ. 
What  is  a  Christian  ? 

"  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  Law."  It  is 
the  rule  for  fulfilling  all  rules,  the  new  com- 
mandment for  keeping  all  the  old  command- 
ments, Christ's  one  secret  of  the  Christian 
life. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Nothing  ever  for  a  moment  broke  the 
serenity  of  Christ's  life  on  earth.  Misfor- 
tune could  not  reach  Him  ;  He  had  no  for- 
tune. Food,  raiment,  money  —  fountain- 
heads  of  half  the  world's  weariness  —  He 
simply  did  not  care  for ;  they  played  no  part 
in  His  life ;  He  "  took  no  thought "  for 
them.  It  was  impossible  to  affect  Him  by 
lowering  His  reputation.  He  had  already 
made  himself  of  no  reputation.  He  was 
dumb  before  insult.     When  He  was  reviled 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  23 

He  reviled  not  again.  In  fact,  there  was 
nothing  that  the  world  could  do  to  Him  that 
could  ruffle  the  surface  of  His  spirit. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

Unfouef^  christians 

How  many  prodigals  are  kept  out  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  by  the  unlovely  character 
of  those  who  profess  to  be  inside ! 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

^9e  d^vue  (Cfristian 

When  a  man  becomes  a  Christian  the  nat- 
ural process  is  this  :  The  Living  Christ  enters 
into  his  soul.  Development  begins.  The 
quickening  Life  seizes  upon  the  soul,  assimi- 
lates surrounding  elements,  and  begins  to 
fashion  it.  According  to  the  great  Law  of 
Conformity  to  Type,  this  fashioning  takes  a 
specific  form.  It  is  of  the  Artist  who  fasli- 
ions.  And  all  through  Life  this  wonderful, 
mystical,  glorious,  yet  perfectly  definite  proc- 
ess goes  on  "  until  Christ  be  formed  "  in  it. 
Natural  Law  :  "  Conformity  to  Type." 

Cfvistianit^  a  ^^a)jtn 

We  are  told  in  the  New  Testament  that 
Christianity  is  leaven,  and  "leaven"  comes 
from  the  same  root-word  as  lever,  meaning 


24  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

that  which  raises  up,  which  elevates ;  and  a 
Christian  young  man  is  a  man  who  raises  up 
or  elevates  the  lives  of  those  round  about 
him.  What  is  a  Christian  ? 


Content 

Do  not  quarrel,  therefore,  with  your  lot  in 
life.  Do  not  complain  of  its  never-ceasing 
cares,  its  petty  environment,  the  vexations 
you  have  to  stand,  the  small  and  sordid  souls 
you  have  to  live  and  work  with.  Above  all, 
do  not  resent  temptation ;  do  not  be  per- 
plexed because  it  seems  to  thicken  round 
you  more  and  more,  and  ceases  neither  for 
effort  nor  for  agony  nor  prayer.  That  is 
your  practice.  That  is  the  practice  which 
God  appoints  you.  And  it  is  having  its  work 
in  making  you  patient,  and  humble,  and  gen- 
erous, and  unselfish,  and  kind,  and  courteous. 
The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


^^e  Common^ face 

Nothing  in  this  age  is  more  needed  in  every 
department  of  knowledge  than  the  rejuvenes- 
cence of  the  commonplace.  In  the  spiritual 
world  especially,  he  will  be  wise  who  courts 
acquaintance  with  the  most  ordinary  and 
transparent  facts  of  nature. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Environment." 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  25 

Consumption  anh  3t0  ^firituaf 
(gnafo^ue 

The  soul  undergoing  Degeneration,  surely 
by  some  arrangement  with  Temptation  planned 
in  the  uttermost  hell,  possesses  the  power  of 
absolute  secrecy.  When  all  within  is  fester- 
ing decay  and  rottenness,  a  Judas,  without 
anomaly,  may  kiss  his  Lord.  This  invisible 
consumption,  like  its  fell  analogue  in  the  nat- 
ural world,  may  even  keep  its  victim  beauti- 
ful while  slowly  slaying  it. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Degeneration." 


Continuity 

Probably  the  most  satisfactory  way  to  se- 
cure for  one's  self  a  just  appreciation  of  the 
principle  of  Continuity  is  to  try  to  conceive 
the  universe  without  it.  The  opposite  of  a 
continuous  universe  would  be  a  discontinuous 
universe,  an  incoherent  and  irrelevant  uni- 
verse —  as  irrelevant  in  all  its  ways  of  doing 
things  as  an  irrelevant  person.  In  effect,  to 
withdraw  Continuity  from  the  universe  would 
be  the  same  as  to  withdraw  reason  from  an 
individual.  The  universe  would  run  de- 
ranged ;  the  world  would  be  a  mad  world. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Law  of  Continuity." 


26  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

Continuous  ^a)» 

The  Natural  Laws  are  not  the  shadows  or 
images  of  the  Spiritual  in  the  same  sense  as 
autumn  is  emblematical  of  Decay,  or  the 
falling  leaf  of  Death.  The  Natural  Laws,  as 
the  Law  of  Continuity  might  well  warn  us, 
do  not  stop  with  the  visible,  and  then  give 
place  to  a  new  set  of  Laws  bearing  a  strong 
similitude  to  them.  The  Laws  of  the  invisi- 
ble are  the  same  Laws,  projections  of  the 
natural,  not  supernatural.  Analogous  phe- 
nomena are  not  the  fruit  of  parallel  Laws, 
but  of  the  same  Laws  —  Laws  which  at  one 
end,  as  it  were,  may  be  dealing  with  Matter, 
at  the  other  end  with  Spirit. 

Natural  Law :  "  Law  of  Continuity." 


Coni?ersion  3s  ^u66en 

The  change  from  Death  to  Life,  alike  in 
the  natural  and  spiritual  spheres,  is  the  work 
of  a  moment.  Whatever  the  conscious  hour 
of  the  second  birth  may  be —  in  the  case  of 
an  adult  it  is  probably  defined  by  the  first  real 
victory  over  sin  —  it  is  certain  that  on  bio- 
logical principles  the  real  turning-point  is 
literally  a  moment.  But  on  moral  and  hu- 
mane grounds  this  misunderstood,  perverted, 
and  therefore  despised  doctrine  is  equally 
capable   of   defence.      Were   any   reformer. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  27 

with  an  adequate  knowledge  of  human  life, 
to  sit  down  and  plan  a  scheme  for  the  salva- 
tion of  sinful  men,  he  would  probably  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  best  way,  after  all 
—  perhaps,  indeed,  the  only  way  —  to  turn  a 
sinner  from  the  error  of  his  ways  would  be  to 
do  it  suddenly. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Death." 


Communion  \»itf  <5o5 

Communion  with  God  —  can  it  be  demon- 
strated in  terms  of  Science  that  this  is  a  cor- 
respondence which  will  never  break  ?  We 
do  not  appeal  to  Science  for  such  a  testimony. 
We  have  asked  for  its  conception  of  an  Eter- 
nal Life,  and  we  have  received  for  answer 
that  Eternal  Life  would  consist  in  a  corre- 
spondence which  should  never  cease,  with  an 
Environment  which  should  never  pass  away. 
And  yet  what  would  Science  demand  of  a 
perfect  correspondence  that  is  not  met  by 
this,  the  knowing  of  God  ?  There  is  no  other 
correspondence  which  could  satisfy  one  at 
least  of  the  conditions.  Not  one  could  be 
named  which  would  not  bear  on  the  face  of 
it  the  mark  and  pledge  of  its  mortality.  But 
this,  to  know  God,  stands  alone. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Eternal  Life." 


28  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

The  Christian  life  is  the  only  life  that  will 
ever  be  completed.  Apart  from  Christ  the 
life  of  man  is  a  broken  pillar,  the  race  of  men 
an  unfinished  pyramid.  One  by  one,  in  sight 
of  Eternity,  all  human  ideals  fall  short ;  one 
by  one,  before  the  open  grave,  all  human 
hopes  dissolve. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Conformity  to  Type." 

Conffiet 

Keep  in  the  midst  of  Life.  Do  not  isolate 
yourself.  Be  among  men,  and  among  things, 
and  among  troubles  and  difficulties  and  ob- 
stacles. You  remember  Goethe's  words : 
"  Talent  develops  itself  in  solitude,  character 
in  the  stream  of  life." 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Man's  spiritual  life  consists  in  the  number 
and  fulness  of  his  correspondences  with  God. 
In  order  to  develop  these  he  may  be  con- 
strained to  insulate  them,  to  enclose  them 
from  the  other  correspondences,  to  shut  him- 
self m  with  them.  In  many  ways  the  limita- 
tion of  the  natural  life  is  the  necessar}^  condi- 
tion of  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  spiritual 
life.  Natural  Law  :  "  Mortification." 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  29 

Politeness  has  been  defined  as  love  in 
trifles.  Courtesy  is  said  to  be  love  in  little 
things.  And  the  one  secret  of  politeness  is 
to  love.  Love  cannot  behave  itself  unseemly. 
You  can  jDut  the  most  untutored  persons  into 
the  highest  society,  and  if  they  have  a  reser- 
voir of  Love  in  their  heart  they  will  not  be- 
have themselves  unseemly.  They  simj^ly 
cannot  do  it. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Cxiiicisvx 

It  is  easier  to  criticise  the  best  thing  su- 
perbly than  to  do  the  smallest  thing  indif- 
ferently. What  is  a  Christian  ? 

Cx088 

The  whole  cross  is  more  easily  carried 
than  the  half. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Mortification." 

'Btat^  in  (Jtature 

We  are  wont  to  imagine  that  Nature  is 
full  of  Life.  In  reality  it  is  full  of  Death. 
One  cannot  say  it  is  natural  for  a  plant  to 
live.  Examine  its  nature  fully,  and  you 
have  to  admit  that  its    natural    tendency  is 


30  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

to  die.  It  is  kept  from  dying  by  a  mere 
temporary  endowment  which  gives  it  an 
ephemeral  dominion  over  the  elements  — 
gives  it  power  to  utilize  for  a  brief  span 
the  rain,  the  sunshine,  and  the  air.  With- 
draw this  temporary  endowment  for  a 
moment  and  its  true  nature  is  revealed. 
Instead  of  overcoming  Nature  it  is  over- 
come. The  very  things  which  appeared  to 
minister  to  its  growth  and  beauty  now  turn 
against  it  and  make  it  decay  and  die.  The 
sun  which  warmed  it,  withers  it ;  the  air  and 
rain  which  nourished  it,  rot  it.  It  is  the 
very  forces  which  we  associate  with  life 
which,  when  their  true  nature  appears,  are 
discovered  to  be  really  the  ministers  of 
death. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Degeneration." 

<S>eat^  a  #tey  in  (Kbofution 

The  part  of  the  organism  which  begins  to 
get  out  of  correspondence  with  the  Organic 
Environment  is  the  only  part  which  is  in 
vital  correspondence  with  it.  Though  a 
fatal  disadvantage  to  the  natural  man  to  be 
thrown  out  of  correspondence  with  this 
Environment,  it  is  of  inestimable  impor- 
tance to  the  spiritual  man.  For  so  long  as 
it  is  maintained  the  way  is  barred  for  a 
further  Evolution.  And  hence  the  condi- 
tion necessary  for  the    further  Evolution  is 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  31 

that  the  spiritual  be  released  from  the  natu- 
ral. That  is  to  say,  the  condition  of  the 
further  Evolution  is  Death. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Eternal  Life." 

How  pardonable,  surely,  the  impatience  of 
deformity  with  itself,  of  a  consciously  despica- 
ble character  standing  before  Christ,  wonder- 
ing, yearning,  hungering,  to  be  like  that ! 
The  Changed  Life. 

The  punishment  of  degeneration  is  sim- 
ply degeneration  —  the  loss  of  functions,  the 
decay  of  organs,  the  atrophy  of  the  spiritual 
nature. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Parasitism." 

The  development  of  any  organism  in  any 
direction  is  dependent  on  its  Environment. 
A  living  cell  cut  off  from  air  will  die.  A 
seed-germ  apart  from  moisture  and  an  ap- 
propriate temperature  will  make  the  ground 
its  grave  for  centuries.  Human  nature,  like- 
wise, is  subject  to  similar  conditions.  It  can 
only  develop  in  presence  of  its  Environment. 
No  matter  what  its  possibilities  may  be,  no 


32  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

matter  what  seeds  of  thought  or  virtue,  what 
germs  of  genius  or  of  art,  lie  latent  in  its 
breast,  until  the  appropriate  Environment 
present  itself  the  correspondence  is  denied, 
the  development  discouraged,  the  most  splen- 
did possibilities  of  life  remain  unrealized, 
and  thought  and  virtue,  genius  and  art,  are 
dead. 

Natural  Laiv :  "  Death." 

S>iffieuftie0 

Talking  about  difficulties,  as  a  rule,  only 
aggravates  them.  Entire  satisfaction  to  the 
intellect  is  unattainable  about  any  of  the 
greater  problems,  and  if  you  try  to  get  to 
the  bottom  of  them  by  argument,  there  is  no 
bottom  there  ;  and  therefore  you  make  the 
matter  worse.  How  to  Learn  How. 

disease  cinh  ®e<tt^ 

In  the  natural  world  it  only  requires  a 
single  vital  correspondence  of  the  body  to 
be  out  of  order  to  ensure  death.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  have  consumption,  diabetes,  and 
an  aneurism  to  bring  the  body  to  the  grave 
if  it  have  heart  disease.  He  who  is  fatally 
diseased  in  one  organ  necessarily  pays  the 
penalty  with  his  life,  though  all  the  others 
be  in  perfect  health.  And  such,  likewise, 
are  the  mysterious  unity  and  correlation  of 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  33 

functions  in  the  spiritual  organism  that  the 
disease  of  one  member  may  involve  the  ruin 
of   the  whole. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Mortification." 

Sanctity  is  in  character,  and  not  in  moods  ; 
Divinity  in  our  own  plain,  calm  humanity,  and 
in  no  mystic  rapture  of  the  soul. 

The  Changed  Life. 

®ou6t  an6  Un6eeief 

Christ  never  failed  to  distinguish  between 
doubt  and  unbelief.  Doubt  is  canH  believe  ; 
unbelief  is  won't  believe.  Doubt  is  honesty ; 
unbelief  is  obstinacy.  Doubt  is  looking  for 
light ;  unbelief  is  content  with  darkness. 
How  to  Learn  How. 


We  have  already  admitted  that  he  who 
knows  not  God  may  not  be  a  monster  ;  we 
cannot  say  he  will  not  be  a  dwarf.  This 
precisely,  and  on  perfectly  natural  princi- 
ples, is  what  he  must  be.  You  can  dwarf  a 
soul  just  as  you  can  dwarf  a  plant,  by  depriv- 
ing it  of  a  full  Environment. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Death." 


34  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

Dying  is  that  break-down  in  an  organism 
which  throws  it  out  of  correspondence  with 
some  necessary  part  of  the  environment. 
Death  is  the  result  produced  —  the  want  of 
correspondence.  We  do  not  say  that  this  is 
all  that  is  involved.  But  this  is  the  root-idea 
of  Death  —  failure  to  adjust  internal  rela- 
tions to  external  relations,  failure  to  repair 
the  broken  inward  connection  sufficiently  to 
enable  it  to  correspond  again  with  the  old 
surroundings. 

Natural  Law :  "  Death." 

This  earthly  mind  may  be  of  noble  calibre, 
enriched  by  culture,  high-toned,  virtuous  and 
pure.  But  if  it  know  not  God?  What 
though  its  correspondences  reach  to  the  stars 
of  heaven  or  grasp  the  magnitudes  of  Time 
and  Space?  The  stars  of  heaven  are  not 
heaven.     Space  is  not  God. 

Natural  Law :  "Death." 

The  well-defined  spiritual  life  is  not  only 
the  highest  life,  but  it  is  also  the  most  easily 
lived. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Mortification." 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  35 

effort 

A  religion  of  effortless  adoration  may  be  a 
religion  for  an  angel,  but  never  for  a  man. 
Not  in  the  contemplative,  but  in  the  active, 
lies  true  hope  ;  not  in  rapture,  but  in  reality, 
lies  true  life ;  not  in  the  realm  of  ideals,  but 
among  tangible  things,  is  man's  sanctifi cation 
wrought.  The  Changed  Life. 

What  a  noble  gift  it  is,  the  power  of  piay- 
ing  upon  the  souls  and  wills  of  men,  and 
rousing  them  to  lofty  purposes  and  holy 
deeds!  Paul  says,  "If  I  speak  with  the 
tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  and  have  not 
love,  I  am  become  as  sounding  brass,  or  a 
tinklmg  cymbal."  And  we  all  know  why. 
We  have  all  felt  the  brazenness  of  words 
without  emotion,  the  hollowness,  the  unac- 
countable unpersuasiveness,  of  eloquence  be- 
hind which  lies  no  Love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

enl?ironment 

All  knowledge  lies  in  Environment.  When 
I  want  to  know  about  minerals  I  go  to  min- 
erals. When  I  want  to  know  about  flowers 
I  go  to  flowers.     And  they  tell  me.    In  their 


36  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

own  way  they  speak  to  me,  each  in  its  own 
way,  and  each  for  itself  —  not  the  mineral 
for  the  flower,  which  is  impossible,  nor  the 
flower  for  the  mineral,  which  is  also  impossi- 
ble. So  if  I  want  to  know  about  Man,  I  go 
to  his  part  of  the  Environment.  And  he 
tells  me  about  himself;  not  as  the  plant  or 
the  mineral,  for  he  is  neither,  but  in  his  own 
way.  And  if  I  want  to  know  about  God,  I 
go  to  His  part  of  the  Environment.  And  He 
tells  me  about  Himself,  not  as  a  Man,  for  He 
is  not  Man,  but  in  His  own  way. 

Natural  Law :   "  Eternal  Life." 

Whenever  you  attempt  a  good  work  you 
will  find  other  men  doing  the  same  kind  of 
work,  and  probably  doing  it  better.  Envy 
them  not.  Envy  is  a  feeling  of  ill-will  to 
those  who  are  in  the  sarne  line  as  ourselves, 
a  spirit  of  covetousness  and  detraction.  How 
little  Christian  work  even  is  a  protection 
against  un-Christian  feeling!  That  most 
despicable  of  all  the  unworthy  moods  which 
cloud  a  Christian's  soul  assuredly  waits  for 
us  on  the  threshold  of  every  work,  unless 
we  are  fortified  with  this  grace  of  magnan- 
imity. Only  one  thing  truly  need  the  Chris- 
tian envy  —  the  large,  rich,  generous  soul 
which  "  envieth  not." 

The  Greatest  Tiling  in  the  World. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  37 

<&itxnae  Jlife:  5t0  #ofution 

To  Christianity,  "  lie  that  hath  the  Son  of 
God  hath  Life,  and  he  that  hath  not  the  Son 
hath  not  Life."  This,  as  we  take  it,  defines 
the  correspondence  which  is  to  bridge  the 
grave.  This  is  the  clue  to  the  nature  of  the 
Life  that  lies  at  the  back  of  the  spiritual 
organism.  And  this  is  the  true  solution  of 
the  mystery  of  Eternal  Life. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Eternal  Life." 

0tetnit^ 

In  the  vocabulary  of  Science,  Eternity  is 
only  the  fraction  of  a  word.  It  means 
mere  everlastingness.  To  Religion,  on  the 
other  hand,  Eternity  has  little  to  do  with 
time.  To  correspond  with  the  God  of  Sci- 
ence, the  Eternal  Unknowable,  would  be 
everlasting  existence ;  to  correspond  with 
"the  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ"  is  Eternal 
Life.  The  quality  of  the  Eternal  Life  alone 
makes  the  heaven ;  mere  everlastingness 
might  be  no  boon. 

Natural  Law :  "  Eternal  Life." 

The  want  of  connection  between  the  great 
words  of  religion  and  every-day  life  has  be- 
wildered and  discouraged  all  of  us. 

Pax  Vohiscum. 


38  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 


euofution:  'U)M  3s  ^t? 

*'  What  about  evolution  ?  How  am  I  to 
reconcile  my  religion,  or  any  religion,  with 
the  doctrine  of  evolution?"  That  upsets 
more  men  than  perhaps  anything  else  at  the 
present  hour.  How  would  you  deal  with  it? 
I  would  say  to  a  man  that  Christianity  is 
the  further  evolution.  I  don't  know  any  bet- 
ter definition  than  that.  It  is  the  further 
evolution  —  the  higher  evolution.  I  don't 
start  with  him  to  attack  evolution.  I  don't 
start  with  him  to  defend  it.  I  destroy  by  fulfil- 
ling it.  I  take  him  at  his  own  terms.  He  says 
evolution  is  that  which  pushes  the  man  on 
from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  from  the 
lower  to  the  higher.  Very  well ;  that  is 
what  Christianity  does.  It  pushes  the  man 
farther  on.  It  takes  him  where  nature  has 
left  him,  and  carries  him  on  to  heights  which 
on  the  plane  of  nature  he  could  never  reach. 
That  is  evolution.  How  to  Learn  How. 

ei?ofution,  (Uaturaf  anh  #|?itituaf 

As  the  biologist  runs  his  eye  over  the  long 
Ascent  of  Life  he  sees  the  lowest  forms  of 
animals  develop  in  an  hour ;  the  next  above 
these  reach  maturity  in  a  day  ;  those  higher 
still  take  weeks  or  months  to  perfect ;  but 
the  few  at  the  top  demand  the  long  experi- 
ment of  years.     If  a  child  and  an  ape  are  born 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  39 

on  the  same  day,  the  last  will  be  in  full  pos- 
session of  its  faculties  and  doing  the  active 
work  of  life  before  the  child  has  left  its  cra- 
dle. Life  is  the  cradle  of  eternity.  As  the 
man  is  to  the  animal  in  the  slowness  of  his 
evolution,  so  is  the  spiritual  man  to  the  natu- 
ral man.  Foundations  which  have  to  bear 
the  weight  of  an  eternal  life  must  be  surely 
laid.  Character  is  to  wear  for  ever  ;  who  will 
wonder  or  grudge  that  it  cannot  be  developed 
in  a  day  ? 

The  Changed  Life. 

0l?ofution:  5ts  5^^^^^ 

It  is  perhaps  impossible,  with  such  facul- 
ties as  we  now  possess,  to  imagine  Evolution 
with  a  future  as  great  as  its  past.  So  stu- 
pendous is  the  development  from  the  atom  to 
the  man  that  no  point  can  be  fixed  in  the  fut- 
ure as  distant  from  what  man  is  now  as  he  is 
from  the  atom.  But  it  has  been  given  to 
Christianity  to  disclose  the  lines  of  a  further 
Evolution. 

Natural  Law :  ''  Classification." 

€^i3ofution  Unii?er0af 

Evolution  being  found  in  so  many  different 
sciences,  the  likelihood  is  that  it  is  a  univer- 
sal principle.     And  there  is  no  presumption 


40  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

whatever  against  this  Law  and  many  others 
being  excluded  from  the  domain  of  the  spirit- 
ual life. 

Natural  Law. 

It  will  never  do  to  exasjojerate  one  truth  at 
the  expense  of  another  ;  and  a  truth  may  be 
turned  into  a  falsehood  very,  very  easily,  by 
simply  being  either  too  much  enlarged  or  too 
much  diminished. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

The  great  God  of  science  at  the  present 
time  is  a  fact.  It  works  with  facts.  Its  cry 
is  "  Give  me  facts  !  "  Found  anything  you 
like  upon  facts  and  we  will  believe  it.  The 
Spirit  of  Christ  was  the  scientific  spirit.  He 
founded  his  religion  upon  facts,  and  He  asked 
all  men  to  found  their  religion  upon  facts. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

5aitf  an6  (Heaaon 

Faith  is  never  opposed  to  reason  in  the 
New  Testament ;  it  is  opposed  to  sight. 

How  to  Learn  How. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  41 

It  is  now  known  that  the  human  body  acts 
toward  certain  fever-germs  as  a  sort  of  soil. 
The  man  whose  blood  is  pure  has  nothing  to 
fear.  So  he  whose  spirit  is  purified  and 
sweetened  becomes  proof  against  these  germs 
of  sin.  "  Anger,  wrath,  malice,  and  railing  " 
in  such  a  soil  can  find  no  root. 

Natural  Law :  "  Mortification." 


5oo5 

To  sustain  life,  physical,  mental,  moral,  or 
spiritual,  some  sort  of  food  is  essential.  To 
secure  an  adequate  supply  each  organism  also 
is  provided  with  special  and  appropriate 
faculties.  But  the  final  gain  to  the  organism 
does  not  depend  so  much  on  the  actual 
amount  of  food  procured  as  on  the  exercise 
required  to  obtain  it.  In  one  sense  the  exer- 
cise is  only  a  means  to  an  end,  namely,  the 
finding  food  ;  but  in  another  and  equally  real 
sense  the  exercise  is  the  end,  the  food  the 
means  to  attain  that.  Neither  is  of  perma- 
nent use  without  the  other,  but  the  corre- 
lation between  them  is  so  intimate  that  it 
were  idle  to  say  that  one  is  more  necessary 
than  the  other.  Without  food  exercise  is  im- 
possible, but  without  exercise  food  is  use- 
less. Natural  Law :  "  Parasitism." 


42  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

5tien60^if 

Friendship  is  the  nearest  thing  we  know  to 
what  religion  is.     God  is  love.     And  to  make 
religion  akin  to  friendship  is  simply  to  give  it 
the  highest  expression  conceivable  by  man. 
The  Changed  Life. 

Jundamentaf  (J}rinei|?fe 

We  never  know  how  little  we  have  learned 
of  the  fundamental  principle  of  Christianity 
till  we  discover  how  much  we  are  all  bent  on 
supplementing  God's  free  grace. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Growth." 

2^^e  (Bentfeman 

Carlyle  said  of  Robert  Burns  that  there 
was  no  truer  gentleman  in  Europe  than  the 
ploughmau-poet.  It  was  because  he  loved 
everything  —  the  mouse,  and  the  daisy,  and 
all  the  things,  great  and  small,  that  God  had 
made.  So  with  this  simple  passport  he  could 
mingle  with  any  society,  and  enter  courts  and 
palaces  from  his  little  cottage  on  the  banks  of 
the  Ayr.  You  know  the  meaning  of  the 
word  "  gentleman."  It  means  a  gentle  man  — 
a  man  who  does  things  gently,  with  love. 
And  that  is  the  whole  art  and  mystery  of  it. 
The  gentle  man  cannot  in  the  nature  of 
things    do    an   ungentle,    an  ungentlemanly, 


HELPPUL    THOUGHTS  43 

thing.  The  ungentle  soul,  the  inconsiderate, 
unsympathetic  nature,  cannot  do  anything 
else.  "  Love  doth  not  behave  itself  un- 
seemly." 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


(5o6  3nei?ita6fe 

To  every  man  who  truly  studies  Nature 
there  is  a  God.  Call  him  by  whatever  name 
—  a  Creator,  a  Supreme  Being,  a  Great 
First  Cause,  a  Power  that  makes  for  Right- 
eousness —  Science  has  a  God  ;  and  he  who 
believes  in  this,  in  spite  of  all  protest,  pos- 
sesses a  theology. 

Natural  Law  .*  "  Death." 


God  is  not  confined  to  the  uttermost  circle 
of  environment ;  He  lives  and  moves  and 
has  His  being  in  the  whole.  Those  who  only 
seek  Him  in  the  further  zone  can  only  find  a 
part.  The  Christian  who  knows  not  God  in 
Nature,  who  does  not,  that  is  to  say,  corre- 
spond with  the  whole  environment,  most  cer- 
tainly is  partially  dead. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Death." 


44  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

<5o5  t^e  ^tue  0nl?itronment 

The  true  environment  of  the  moral  life  is 
God.  Here  conscience  wakes.  Here  kindles 
love.  Duty  here  becomes  heroic,  and  that 
righteousness  begins  to  live  which  alone  is  to 
live  for  ever.  But  if  this  atmosphere  is  not, 
the  dwarfed  soul  must  perish  for  mere  want 
of  its  native  air.  And  its  death  is  a  strictly 
natural  death.  It  is  not  an  exceptional  judg- 
ment upon  Atheism.  In  the  same  circum- 
stances, in  the  same  averted  relation  to  their 
environment,  the  poet,  the  musician,  the  ar- 
tist, would  alike  perish  to  poetry,  to  music, 
and  to  art.  Every  environment  is  a  cause. 
Its  effect  upon  me  is  exactly  proportionate  to 
my  correspondence  with  it.  If  I  correspond 
with  part  of  it,  part  of  myself  is  influenced. 
If  I  correspond  with  more,  more  of  myself  is 
influenced  ;  if  with  all,  all  is  influenced.  If 
I  correspond  with  the  world,  I  become 
worldly ;  if  with  God,  I  become  Divine. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Death." 


<5o6  itt  Qtatute 

We  have  not  said,  or  implied,  that  there  is 
not  a  God  of  Nature.  We  have  not  affirmed 
that  there  is  no  Natural  Religion.  We  are 
assured  there  is.  We  are  even  assured  that 
without   a   Religion   of  Nature,    Religion    is 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  45 

only  half  complete  ;  that  without  a  God  of 
Nature,  the  God  of  Revelation  is  only  half 
intelligible  and  only  partially  known.  God 
is  not  confined  to  the  outermost  circle  of  en- 
vironment. He  lives  and  moves  and  has  His 
being  in  the  whole. 

Natural  Law :  "  Death." 


It  has  never  been  as  clear  to  us  that  with- 
out God  the  soul  will  die  as  that  without 
food  the  body  will  perish. 

Natural  Laiv  :  "  Environment." 


&xabciiionB 

We  all,  reflecting  as  a  mirror  the  character 
of  Christ,  are  transformed  into  the  same 
Image  from  character  to  character  —  from  a 
poor  character  to  a  better  one,  from  a  better 
one  to  one  a  little  better  still,  from  that  to 
one  still  more  complete  —  until,  by  slow  de- 
grees, the  Perfect  Image  is  attained.  Here 
the  solution  of  the  problem  of  sanctification 
is  compressed  into  a  sentence :  Reflect  the 
character  of  Christ  and  you  will  become  like 
Christ. 

The  Changed  Life. 


46  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

<5tan5mot^er0 

Boys,  if  you  are  going  to  be  Christians,  be 
Christians  as  boys,  and  not  as  your  grand- 
mothers. A  grandmother  has  to  be  a  Chris- 
tian as  a  grandmother,  and  that  is  the  right 
and  the  beautiful  thing  for  her ;  but  if  you 
cannot  read  your  Bible  by  the  hour  as  your 
grandmother  can,  or  delight  in  meetings  as 
she  can,  don't  think  you  are  necessarily  a  bad 
boy.  When  you  are  your  grandmother's  age 
you  will  have  your  grandmother's  kind  of 
religion.  "  First !  " 

(Brabttation 

When  Nature  yielded  to  Newton  her 
great  secret,  gravitation  was  felt  to  be  no 
greater  as  a  fact  in  itself  than  as  a  rev- 
elation that  Law  was  Fact. 

Natural  Law:  "  Preface." 

(&xt<xi  (JUen 

How  do  I  know  Shakespeare  or  Dante  ? 
By  communing  with  their  words  and  thoughts. 
Many  men  know  Dante  better  than  their 
own  fathers.  He  influences  them  more.  As 
a  spiritual  presence  he  is  more  near  to  them, 
as  a  spiritual  force  more  real.  Is  there  any 
reason  why  a  greater  than  Shakespeare  or 
Dante,  who  also  walked  this  earth,  who  left 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  47 

great  words  behind  Him,  who  has  great 
works  everywhere  in  the  world  now,  should 
not  also  instruct,  inspire,  and  mould  the  char- 
acters of  men  ?  The  Changed  Life. 

<5reat  t[^xyxi^% 

The  greatest  truths  are  always  the  most 
loosely  held.    Natural  Law:  "Biogenesis." 

The  gradualness  of  growth  is  a  character- 
istic which  strikes  the  simplest  observer. 
Long  before  the  word  Evolution  was  coined 
Christ  applied  it  in  this  very  connection  — 
"  First  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full 
corn  in  the  ear."  It  is  well  known  also  to 
those  who  study  the  parables  of  Nature  that 
there  is  an  ascending  scale  of  slowness  as  we 
rise  in  the  scale  of  Life.  Growth  is  most 
gradual  in  the  highest  forms.  Man  attains 
his  maturity  after  a  score  of  years ;  the 
monad  conapletes  its  humble  cycle  in  a  day. 
What  wonder  if  development  be  tardy  in  the 
Creature  of  Eternity?  A  Christian's  sun 
has  sometimes  set,  and  a  critical  world  has 
seen  as  yet  no  corn  in  the  ear.  As  yet  ? 
''  As  yet,"  in  this  long  Life,  has  not  begun. 
Grant  him  the  years  proportionate  to  his 
place  in  the  scale  of  Life.  "  The  time  of 
harvest  is  not  yet''  Natural  Law. 


48  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

<5to\»t^:  5t0  Con6ition0 

The  conditions  of  growth,  then,  and  the 
inward  principle  of  growth  being  both  sup- 
plied by  Nature,  the  thing  man  has  to  do,  the 
little  junction  left  for  him  to  complete,  is  to 
apply  the  one  to  the  other.  He  manufactures 
nothing  ;  he  earns  nothing  ;  he  need  be  anx- 
ious for  nothing  ;  his  one  duty  is  to  he  in 
these  conditions,  to  abide  in  them,  to  allow 
grace  to  play  over  him,  to  be  still  therein, 
and  know  that  this  is  God. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Growth." 

(Btoiwt^  (noi0efe00 

Do  not  think  that  nothing  is  happening 
because  you  do  not  see  yourself  grow  or 
hear  the  whirr  of  the  machinery.  All 
great  things  grow  noiselessly.  You  can  see 
a  mushroom  grow,  but  never  a  child. 

The  Changed  Life. 

(5uifefe00ne00 

Guilessness  is  the  grace  for  suspicious  peo- 
ple. And  the  possession  of  it  is  the  great 
secret  of  personal  influence.  You  will  find, 
if  you  think  for  a  moment,  that  the  people 
who  influence  you  are  people  who  believe  in 
you.  In  an  atmosphere  of  suspicion  men 
shrivel    up ;     but    in    that    atmosphere    they 


TanDcr  tbc  riQbt  conditions 
it  i0  as  natural 
tor  a  cbaractcr 

to  become 


beautiful 
as  for  a  flower. 

BEAUTY   OF 

CHARAOTEn, 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  49 

expand,  and  find  encouragement  and  educa- 
tive fellowship.  It  is  a  wonderful  thing 
that  here  and  there  in  this  hard,  unchari- 
table world  there  should  still  be  left  a  few 
rare  souls  who  think  no  evil. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

ga^j^tnesfl  Mt^  in  (Bibin^ 

The  most  obvious  lesson  in  Christ's  teach- 
ing is  that  there  is  no  happiness  in  having 
and  getting  anything,  but  only  in  giving. 
And  half  the  world  is  on  the  wrong  scent^  in 
pursuit  of  happiness.  They  think  it  consists 
in  having  and  getting,  and  in  being  served  by 
others.  It  consists  in  giving,  and  in  serving 
others.  He  that  would  be  great  among  you, 
said  Christ,  let  him  serve.  He  that  would 
be  happy,  let  him  remember  that  there  is  but 
one  way  —  it  is  more  blessed,  it  is  more  happy, 
to  give  than  to  receive. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

^atmon^ 

It  is  clear  that  a  remarkable  harmony  ex- 
ists here  between  the  Organic  World  as 
arranged  by  Science  and  the  Spiritual  World 
as  arranged  by  Scripture.  We  find  one  great 
Law  guarding  the  thresholds  of  both  worlds, 
securino:  that  entrance  from  a  lower  sphere 


50  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

shall  only  take  place  by  a  direct  regenerating 
act,  and  that  emanating  from  the  world  next 
in  order  above.  There  are  not  two  laws  of 
Biogenesis,  one  for  the  Natm-al,  the  other  for 
the  Spiritual ;  one  law  is  for  both.  Where- 
ever  there  is  Life,  Life  of  any  kind,  this  same 
law  holds.  The  analogy,  therefore,  is  only 
among  the  phenomena ;  between  laws  there 
is  no  analogy  —  there  is  Continuity. 

Natural  Law :  "  Biogenesis." 


'fe' 


It  is  the  beautiful  work  of  Christianity 
everywhere  to  adjust  the  burden  of  life  to 
those  who  bear  it,  and  them  to  it.  It  has  a 
perfectly  miraculous  gift  of  healing.  With- 
out doing  any  violence  to  human  nature  it 
sets  it  right  with  life,  harmonizing  it  with  all 
surrounding  things,  and  restoring  those  who 
are  jaded  with  the  fatigue  and  dust  of  the 
world  to  a  new  grace  of  living. 

Pax  Vohiscum. 

Whatever  hopes  of  "  heaven  "  a  neglected 
soul  may  have  can  be  shown  to  be  an  ignorant 
and  delusive  dream.  How  is  the  soul  to  es- 
cape to  heaven  if  it  has  neglected  for  a  life- 
time the  means  of  escape  from  the  world  and 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 


51 


self  ?  And  where  is  the  capacity  for  heaven 
to  come  from  if  it  be  not  developed  on  earth  ? 
Where,  indeed,  is  even  the  smallest  spiritual 
appreciation  of  God  and  heaven  to  come  from 
when  so  little*  of  spirituality  has  ever  been 
known  or  manifested  here  ?  If  every  God- 
ward  aspiration  of  the  soul  has  been  allowed 
to  become  extinct,  and  every  inlet  that  was 
open  to  heaven  to  be  choked,  and  every  tal- 
ent for  religious  love  and  trust  to  have  been 
persistently  neglected  and  ignored,  where  are 
the  faculties  to  come  from  that  would  ever 
find  the  faintest  relish  in  such  things  as  God 
and  heaven  give  ? 

Natural  Law:  "  Degeneration." 

What  Heredity  has  to  do  for  us  is  deter- 
mined outside  ourselves.  No  man  can  select 
his  own  parents.  But  every  man  to  some  ex- 
tent can  choose  his  own  Environment.  His 
relation  to  it,  however  largely  determined  by 
Heredity  in  the  first  instance,  is  always  open 
to  alteration.  And  so  great  is  his  control 
over  Environment,  and  so  radical  its  influ- 
ence over  him,  that  he  can  so  direct  it  as 
either  to  undo,  modify,  perpetuate,  or  inten- 
sify the  earlier  hereditary  influence  within 
certain  limits. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Environment." 


52  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

Heresy  is  truth  in  the  making,  and  doubt 
is  the  prelude  of  knowledge. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

3mitation 

Imitation  is  mechanical,  reflection  organic. 
The  one  is  occasional,  the  other  habitual.  In 
the  one  case  man  comes  to  God  and  imitates 
him  ;  in  the  other  God  comes  to  man  and  im- 
prints himself  upon  him. 

The  Changed  Life, 

Smtttortafit^ 

No  truth  of  Christianity  has  been  more 
ignorantly  or  wilfully  travestied  than  the  doc- 
trine of  Immortality.  The  popular  idea,  in 
spite  of  a  hundred  protests,  is  that  Eternal 
Life  is  to  live  for  ever.  A  single  glance  at 
the  locus  classicus  might  have  made  this  error 
impossible.  There  we  are  told  that  Life 
Eternal  is  not  to  live.  This  is  Life  Eter- 
nal—  to  know.  And  yet  —  and  it  is  a  no- 
torious instance  of  the  fact  that  men  who  are 
opposed  to  Religion  will  take  their  concep- 
tions of  its  profoundest  truths  from  mere  vul- 
gar perversions  —  this  view  still  represents 
to  many  cultivated  men  the  Scriptural  doc- 
trine of   Eternal  Life.     From  time  to  time 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  53 

the  taunt  is  thrown  at  Religion,  not  unseldom 
from  lips  which  Science  ought  to  have  taught 
more  caution,  that  the  Future  Life  of  Chris- 
tianity is  simply  a  prolonged  existence,  an 
eternal  monotony,  a  blind  and  indefinite  con- 
tinuance of  being.  The  Bible  never  could 
commit  itself  to  any  such  platitudes,  nor  could 
Christianity  ever  offer  to  the  world  a  hope  so 
colorless. 

Natural  Law :  "Eternal  Life." 


3mperfe<Jtion0  of  tfe  <5o5f^ 

The  sneer  at  the  godly  man  for  his  imper- 
fections is  ill-judged.  A  blade  is  a  small 
thing.  At  first  it  grows  very  near  the  earth. 
It  is  often  soiled  and  crushed  and  downtrod- 
den. But  it  is  a  living  thing.  That  great 
dead  stone  beside  it  is  more  imposing ;  only 
it  will  never  be  anything  less  than  a  stone. 
But  this  small  blade  —  it  doth  not  yet  appear 
what  it  shall  be. 

Natural  Laic :  "Growth." 

3nn?resse5  -^oxuz 

According  to  the  first  Law  of  Motion  : 
Every  body  continues  in  its  state  of  rest,  or 
of  uniform  motion  in  a  straight  line,  except 
in  so  far  as  it  may  be  compelled  hy  im-pressed 
forces  to  change  that  state.     This  is  also  a 


54  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

first  law  of  Christianity.  Every  nian's  char- 
acter remains  as  it  is,  or  continues  in  the  di- 
rection in  which  it  is  going,  until  it  is  com- 
pelled hy  impressed  forces  to  change  that 
state. 

The  Cha7iged  Life. 

3mprol?ement 

No  man  can  become  a  saint  in  his  sleep  ; 
and  to  fulfil  the  condition  required  demands 
a  certain  amount  of  prayer  and  meditation 
and  time,  just  as  improvement  in  any  direc- 
tion, bodily  or  mental,  requires  preparation  and 
care.  Address  yourselves  to  that  one  thing ; 
at  any  cost  have  this  transcendent  character 
exchanged  for  yours. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

3na6im^ 

The  doctrine  of  Human  Inability,  as  the 
Church  calls  it,  has  always  been  objectionable 
to  men  who  do  not  know  themselves. 

Natural  Latv  :  "  Conformity  to  Type." 

3n<jitement 

God  has  planned  the  world  to  incite  to  in- 
tellectual activity. 

Hoiv  to  Learn  How. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  55 


5n<jom^fetene00 

Who  has  not  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
he  is  but  a  part,  a  fraction  of  some  larger 
whole  ?  Who  does  not  miss  at  every  turn  of 
his  life  an  absent  God  ?  That  man  is  but  a 
part  he  knows,  for  there  is  room  in  him  for 
more.  That  God  is  the  other  part  he  feels, 
because  at  times  He  satisfies  his  need.  Who 
does  not  tremble  often  under  that  sicklier 
symptom  of  his  incompleteness,  his  want  of 
spiritual  energy,  his  helplessness  with  sin? 
But  now  he  understands  both  —  the  void  in 
his  life,  the  powerlessness  of  his  will.  He 
understands  that,  like  all  other  energy,  spir- 
itual power  is  contained  in  Environment. 
He  finds  here  at  last  the  true  root  of  all  hu- 
man frailty,  emptiness,  nothingness,  sin.  This 
is  why  "  without  Me  ye  can  do  nothing." 
Powerless  is  the  normal  state  not  only  of 
this  but  of  every  organism  —  of  every  organ- 
ism apart  from  its  Environment. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Environment." 


5neon0i0ten<ji^ 

The  result  of  copying  Humility  and  add- 
ing it  on  to  an  otherwise  worldly  life  is  sim- 
ply grotesque. 

The  Changed  Life, 


56  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

3nffuenee 

It  is  the  Law  of  Influence  that  we  become 
like  those  whom  we  habitually  admire :  these 
had  become  like  because  they  habitually  ad- 
mired. Through  all  the  range  of  literature, 
history,  and  biography  this  law  presides. 
Men  are  all  mosaics  of  other  men.  There 
was  a  savor  of  David  about  Jonathan,  and  a 
savor  of  Jonathan  about  David.  Jean  Val- 
jean,  in  the  masterpiece  of  Victor  Hugo,  is 
Bishop  Bienvenu  risen  from  the  dead.  Met- 
empsychosis is  a  fact.      The  Changed  Life. 

With  the  inspiration  of  Nature  to  illumin- 
ate what  the  inspiration  of  Revelation  has 
left  obscure,  heresy  in  certain  whole  depart- 
ments shall  become  impossible.  With  the 
demonstration  of  the  naturalness  of  the  super- 
natural, scepticism  even  may  come  to  be  re- 
garded as  unscientific.  And  those  who  have 
wrestled  long  for  a  few  bare  truths  to  enno- 
ble life  and  rest  their  souls  in  thinking  of  the 
future  will  not  be  left  in  doubt. 

Natural  Law :  "  Introduction." 

3ntemct 

Then  comes  a  very  important  part,  the 
intellect,   which  is   one    of  the   most   useful 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  57 

servants  of  truth ;  and  I  need  not  tell  you  as 
students  that  the  intellect  will  have  a  great 
deal  to  do  with  your  reception  of  truth.  I 
w^as  told  that  it  was  said  at  these  conferences 
last  year  that  a  man  must  crucify  liis  intel- 
lect. I  venture  to  contradict  the  gentleman 
who  made  that  statement.  I  am  quite  sure 
no  such  statement  could  ever  have  been  made 
in  your  hearing  —  that  we  were  to  crucify 
our  intellects.  We  can  make  no  progress 
without  the  full  use  of  all  the  intellectual 
powers  that  God  has  endowed  us  with. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

5nl7entionfl 

At  every  workshop  you  will  see,  in  the 
back  3'ard,  a  heap  of  old  iron,  a  few  levers, 
a  few  cranks,  broken  and  eaten  with  rust. 
Twenty  years  ago  that  was  the  pride  of  the 
city.  Men  flocked  in  from  the  country  to 
see  the  great  invention ;  now  it  is  super- 
seded, its  day  is  done. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

3©^:  ^ou?  (gttained 

Where  does  Joy  come  from  ?  I  knew  a 
Sunday  scholar  whose  conception  of  Joy  was 
that  it  was  a  thing  made  in  lumps  and  kept 
somewhere  in  Heaven,  and  that  when  people 
prayed  for  it  pieces  were  somehow  let  down 


58  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

and  fitted  into  their  souls.  I  am  not  sure 
that  views  as  gross  and  material  are  not  often 
held  by  people  who  ought  to  be  wiser.  In 
reality,  Joy  is  as  much  a  matter  of  Cause  and 
Effect  as  pain.  No  one  can  get  Joy  by 
merely  asking  for  it.  It  is  one  of  the  ripest 
fruits  of  the  Christian  life,  and,  like  all  fruits, 
must  be  grown. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


It  is  the  Son  of  Man  before  whom  the 
nations  of  the  world  shall  be  gathered.  It  is 
in  the  presence  of  Humanity  that  we  shall  be 
charged.  And  the  spectacle  itself,  the  mere 
sight  of  it,  will  silently  judge  each  one.  Those 
will  be  there  whom  we  have  met  and  helped ; 
or  there  the  unpitying  multitude  whom  we 
neglected  or  despised.  No  other  witness 
need  be  summoned.  No  other  charge  than 
lovelessness  shall  be  preferred.  Be  not  de- 
ceived. The  words  which  all  of  us  shall  one 
day  hear  sound  not  of  theology,  but  of  life; 
not  of  churches  and  saints,  but  of  the  hungry 
and  the  poor  ;  not  of  creeds  and  doctrines, 
but  of  shelter  and  clothing;  not  of  Bibles 
and  prayer-books,  but  of  cups  of  cold  water 
in  the  name  of  Christ. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  59 

Every  character  has  an  inward  spring.  Let 
Christ  be  it.  Every  action  has  a  keynote. 
Let  Christ  set  it.  The  Changed  Life. 

I  wonder  why  it  is  we  are  not  all  kinder 
than  we  are  ?  How  much  the  world  needs 
it !  How  easily  it  is  done !  How  instan- 
taneously it  acts  !  How  infallibly  it  is  re- 
membered !  How  superabundantly  it  pays 
itself  back !  For  there  is  no  debtor  in  the 
world  so  honorable,  so  superbly  honorable, 
as  Love.       TTie  Greatest  Thing  in  the  Woi^ld. 

MxnhntQB  of  Christ 

Have  you  ever  noticed  how  much  of 
Christ's  life  was  spent  in  doing  kind  things 
—  in  merely  doing  kind  things  ?  Run  over 
it  with  that  in  view,  and  you  wdll  find  that 
He  spent  a  great  proportion  of  His  time 
simply  in  making  people  happy,  in  doing 
good  turns  to  people.  There  is  only  one  thing 
greater  than  happiness  in  the  world,  and  that 
is  holiness  ;  and  it  is  not  in  our  keeping ;  but 
what  God  has  put  in  our  power  is  the  happi- 
ness of  those  about  us,  and  that  is  largely  to 
be  secured  by  our  being  kind  to  them. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


60  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

^irx^bortt  of  6o5 

The  Kingdom  of  God  is  not  going  to  relig- 
ious meetings  and  hearing  strange  religious 
experiences.  The  Kingdom  of  God  is  doing 
what  is  right  —  living  at  peace  with  all  men, 
being  filled  with  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"First/" 

The  wisdom  of  the  ancients  —  where  is  it? 
It  is  wholly  gone.  A  school-boy  to-day 
knows  more  than  Sir  Isaac  Newton  knew. 
His  knowledge  has  vanished  away.  You  buy 
the  old  editions  of  the  great  encyclopaedias 
for  a  few  pence.  Their  knowledge  has  faded 
away.  And  all  the  boasted  science  and  phil- 
osophy of  this  day  will  soon  be  old. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

The  most  popular  book  in  the  English 
tongue  at  the  present  time,  except  the  Bible, 
is  one  of  Dickens's  works,  his  Pickwick 
Papers. .  It  is  largely  written  in  the  language 
of  London  street-life,  and  experts  assure  us 
that  in  fifty  years  it  will  be  unintelligible  to 
the  averas^e  English  reader. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  61 

The  world,  even  the  religious  world,  is 
governed  by  Law.  Character  is  governed  by 
Law.  Happiness  is  governed  by  Law.  The 
Christian  experiences  are  governed  by  Law. 
Men,  forgetting  this,  expect  Rest,  Joy,  Peace, 
Faith,  to  drop  into  tlleir  souls  from  the  air, 
like  snow  or  rain. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

The  fundamental  conception  of  Law  is  an 
ascertained  working  sequence  or  constant 
order  among  the  phenomena  of  Nature. 
This  impression  of  Law  as  order  it  is  im- 
portant to  receive  in  its  simplicity,  for  the 
idea  is  often  corrupted  by  having  attached  to 
it  erroneous  views  of  cause  and  effect.  In 
its  true  sense  Natural  Law  predicates  nothing 
of  causes. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Introduction." 

(Ket^n  of  :Eai» 

The  Reign  of  Law  has  gradually  crept 
into  every  department  of  Nature,  transform- 
ing knowledge  everywhere  into  Science.-  The 
process  goes  on,  and  Nature  slowly  appears 
to  us  as  one  great  unity,  until  the  borders 
of  the  Spiritual  World  are  reached. 

Natural  Laiv  :  "  Introduction." 


62  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

^aU),  (Uatutaf  an5  J^f  ititua^ 

The  real  problem  I  have  set  myself  may 
be  stated  in  a  sentence.  Is  there  not  reason 
to  believe  that  many  of  the  Laws  of  the 
Spiritual  World,  hitherto  regarded  as  occupy- 
ing an  entirely  separate  province,  are  simply 
the  Laws  of  the  Natural  World  ?  Can  we 
identify  the  Natural  Laws,  or  any  one  of 
them,  in  the  Spiritual  Sphere  ?  That  vague 
lines  everywhere  run  through  the  Spiritual 
World  is  already  beginning  to  be  recognized. 
Is  it  possible  to  link  them  with  those  great 
lines  running  through  the  visible  universe 
w^hich  \^e  call  the  Natural  Laws,  or  are  they 
fundamentally  distinct?  In  a  word,  Is  the 
Supernatural  natural  or  unnatural  ? 

Natural  Law  :  "  Preface." 

Jlai»  of  ^(d\xxt 

There  is  a  sense  of  solidity  about  a  Law 
of  Nature  which  belongs  to  nothing  else  in 
the  world.  Here,  at  last,  amid  all  that  is 
shifting,  is  one  thing  sure ;  one  thing  outside 
ourselves,  unbiassed,  unprejudiced,  uninflu- 
enced by  like  or  dislike,  by  doubt  or  fear ; 
one  thing  that  holds  on  its  way  to  me  eter- 
nally, incorruptible,  and  undefiled.  This, 
more  than  anything  else,  makes  one  eager  to 
see  the  Reign  of  Law  traced  in  the  Spiritual 
Sphere.  Natural  Law  :  "  Preface." 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  63 


J^ai»«  not  ^^exatoxs 

Laws  do  not  act  upon  anything.  Appar- 
ently it  cannot  be  too  abundantly  emphasized 
that  Laws  are  only  modes  of  operation,  not 
themselves  operators. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Introduction." 


^ife  a  Coxxts^onbc^ntt 

To  find  a  new  Environment  again  and 
cultivate  relation  with  it  is  to  find  a  new 
Life.  To  live  is  to  correspond,  and  to  cor- 
respond is  to  live.  So  much  is  true  in 
Science.  But  it  is  also  true  in  Religion. 
And  it  is  of  great  importance  to  observe 
that  to  Religion  also  the  conception  of  Life 
is  a  correspondence. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Eternal  Life.' 


&\\t  3»  ©efinite 

Life  is  not  one  of  the  homeless  forces 
which  promiscuously  inhabit  space,  or  which 
can  be  gathered  like  electricity  from  the 
clouds  and  dissipated  back  again  into  space. 
Life  is  definite  and  resident ;  and  Spiritual 
Life  is  not  a  visit  from  a  force,  but  a  resi- 
dent tenant  in  the  soul. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Introduction.'' 


64  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

Light  is  a  something  more  than  the  sum 
of  its  ingredients  —  a  glowing,  dazzling,  trem- 
ulous ether.  And  Love  is  something  more 
than  all  its  elements  —  a  palpitating,  quiver- 
ing, sensitive,  living  thing.  By  synthesis  of 
all  the  colors  men  can  make  whiteness,  they 
cannot  make  Light.  By  synthesis  of  all  the 
virtues  men  can  make  virtue  they  cannot 
make  Love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

€§c  MocUt 

There  lived  once  a  young  girl  whose  per- 
fect grace  of  character  was  the  wonder  of 
those  who  knew  her.  She  wore  on  her  neck 
a  gold  locket  which  no  one  was  ever  allowed 
to  open.  One  day,  in  a  moment  of  unusual 
confidence,  one  of  her  companions  was  al- 
lowed to  touch  its  spring  and  learn  its  secret. 
She  saw  written  these  words  :  "  Whom  having 
not  seen,  Hove.''  That  was  the  secret  of  her 
beautiful  life.  She  had  been  changed  into 
the  Same  Image.  The  Changed  Life. 


All  about  us,  Christians  are  wearing  them- 
selves out  in  trying  to  be  better.  The 
amount  of  spiritual  longing  in  the  world  — 


Cbaciti2  i0  onlg 

a  little  bit  of  %ovc 

one  ot  tbe  innumerable 

avenues  of 
Xove. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  65 

in  the  hearts  of  unnumbered  thousands  of 
men  and  women  in  whom  w^e  should  never 
suspect  it ;  among  the  wise  and  thoughtful ; 
among  the  young  and  gay,  who  seldom  as- 
suage and  never  betray  their  thirst,  —  this  is 
one  of  the  most  wonderful  and  touching  facts 
of  life.  It  is  not  more  heat  that  is  needed, 
but  more  light ;  not  more  force,  but  a  wiser 
direction  to  be  given  to  very  real  energies 
already  there.  Pax  Vobisciun. 

You  remember  the  profound  remark  which 
Paul  makes,  "  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the 
law."  Did  you  ever  think  what  he  meant 
by  that  ?  In  those  days  men  were  working 
their  passage  to  Heaven  by  keeping  the  Ten 
Commandments,  and  the  hundred  and  ten 
other  commandments  which  they  had  manu- 
factured out  of  them.  Christ  said,  I  will 
show  you  a  more  simple  way.  If  you  do 
one  thing,  you  will  do  these  hundred  and  ten 
things,  without  ever  thinking  about  them.  If 
you  love,  you  will  unconsciously  fullil  the 
whole  law. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

^ol?e  5mmorta^ 

We  know  but  little  now  about  the  condi- 
tions of  the  life  that  is  to  come.    But  what  is 


QQ  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

certain  is  that  Love  must  last.  God,  the 
Eternal  God,  is  Love.  Covet,  therefore, 
that  everlasting  gift,  that  one  thing  which 
it  is  certain  is  going  to  stand,  that  one  coin- 
age which  will  be  current  in  the  universe 
when  all  the  other  coinages  of  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  world  shall  be  useless  and  un- 
honored.  You  will  give  yourselves  to  many 
things  ;  give  yourself  first  to  Love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

tfioue  50  (patience 

Love  is  Patience.  This  is  the  normal  atti- 
tude of  Love ;  Love  passive.  Love  waiting  to 
begin  ;  not  in  a  hurry  ;  calm  ;  ready  to  do  its 
work  when  the  summons  comes,  but  mean- 
time wearing  the  ornament  of  a  meek  and 
quiet  spirit. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Men  sigh  for  the  wings  of  a  dove,  that 
they  may  fly  away  and  be  at  rest.  But 
flying  away  will  not  help  us.  "  The  King- 
dom of  God  is  ivithin  you.'"  We  aspire  to 
the  top  to  look  for  rest ;  it  lies  at  the  bottom. 
Water  rests  only  when  it  gets  to  the  lowest 
place.     So  do  men.     Hence  be  lowly. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  67 

(JUagnets 

Put  a  piece  of  iron  in  the  presence  of  an 
electrified  body  and  that  piece  of  iron  for  a 
time  becomes  electrified.  It  is  changed  into 
a  temporary  magnet  in  the  mere  presence  of 
a  permanent  magnet,  and  as  long  as  you 
leave  the  two  side  by  side  they  are  both 
magnets  alike.  Remain  side  by  side  with 
Him  who  loved  us  and  gave  Himself  for 
us,  and  you  too  will  become  a  permanent 
magnet,  a  permanently  attractive  force  ;  and 
like  Him  you  will  draw  all  men  unto  you, 
like  Him  you  will  be  drawn  unto  all  men. 
That  is  the  inevitable  effect  of  Love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  hi  the  World, 

He  who  seeks  to  serve  two  masters  misses 
the  benediction  of  both. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Mortification." 

(JYlatetriaffi 

The  lowest  or  mineral  world  mainly  sup- 
plies the  material  —  and  this  is  true  even  for 
insectivorous  species  —  for  the  vegetable  king- 
dom. The  vegetable  supplies  the  material 
for  the  animal.  Next  in  turn,  the  animal 
furnishes  material  for  the  mental ;  and  lastly, 


(>8  hp:lpful  thoughts 

tiie  mental  for  the  spiritual.  Each  member 
of  the  series  is  complete  ouly  when  the  steps 
below  it  are  complete ;  the  highest  demands 
all. 

Natural  Law :  "  Conformity  to  Type." 

(method 

Realize  it  thoroughly  :  it  is  a  methodical, 
not  an  accidental  world. 

Pax   Vobiscum. 

The  advantage  of  the  ministry  is  that  a 
man's  whole  life  can  be  thrown  into  the  car- 
rying out  of  that  programme  without  any 
deduction.  Another  advantage  of  the  min- 
istry is  that  it  is  so  poorly  paid  that  a  man 
is  not  tempted  to  cut  a  dash  and  shine  in  the 
world,  but  can  be  meek  and  lowly  in  heart, 
like  his  Master.  It  is  enough  for  a  servant 
to  be  like  his  master,  and  there  is  a  great  at- 
traction in  seeking  obscurity,  even  isolation, 
if  one  can  be  following  the  highest  ideals. 
What  is  a  Christian  ? 

(jnimefe 

That  question  is  thrown  at  my  head  every 
second  day :  "  What  do  you  say  to  a  man 
when  he  says  to  you,  '  Why  do  you  believe 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  G9 

in  miracles  '  ?  "  I  say,  "  Because  I  have 
seen  them."  He  says,  "  When  ?  "  I  say, 
"  Yesterday."  He  says,  "  Where  ?  "  "  Down 
such-and-such  a  street  I  saw  a  man  who  was 
a  drunkard  redeemed  by  the  power  of  an  un- 
seen Christ  and  saved  from  sin.  That  is  a 
miracle."  The  best  apologetic  for  Chris- 
tianity is  a  Christian.  That  is  a  fact  which 
the  man  cannot  get  over.  There  are  fifty 
other  arguments  for  miracles,  but  none  so 
good  as  that  you  have  seen  them.  Perhaps 
you  are  one  yourself.  But  take  you  a  man 
and  show  him  a  miracle  with  his  own  eyes. 
Then  he  will  believe. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

(JYlittovs 

One  of  the  aptest  descriptions  of  a  human 
being  is  that  he  is  a  mirror.  As  we  sat  at 
table  to-night  the  world  in  which  each  of  us 
lived  and  moved  throughout  this  day  was 
focussed  in  the  room.  What  we  saw  as  we 
looked  at  one  another  was  not  one  another, 
but  one  another's  world.  We  were  an  ar- 
rangement of  mirrors.  The  scenes  we  saw 
were  all  reproduced ;  the  people  we  met 
walked  to  and  fro  I  they  spoke,  they  bowed, 
they  passed  us  by,  did  everything  over  again 
as  if  it  had  been  real.  When  we  talked  we 
were  but  looking  at  our  own  mirror  and  de- 
scribino^  what  flitted  across  it.     Our  listening 


70  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 


was  not  hearing,  but  seeing  —  we  but  looked 
on  our  neighbor's  mirror.  All  human  inter- 
course is  a  seeins:  of  reflections. 


The  Changed  Life. 


(JUiflflionar^  6nter^risc 

Science  has  a  duty  in  pointing  out  that  no 
devotion  or  enthusiasm  can  give  any  man  a 
charmed  life,  and  that  those  who  work  for 
the  highest  ends  will  best  attain  them  in  hum- 
ble obedience  to  the  common  laws.  Tran- 
scenden tally,  this  may  be  denied  ;  the  warn- 
ing finger  may  be  despised  as  the  hand  of 
the  coward  and  the  profane.  But  the  fact 
remains  —  the  fact  of  an  awful  chain  of  Eng- 
lish graves  stretching  across  Africa.  This  is 
not  spoken,  nevertheless,  to  discourage  mis- 
sionary enterprise.  It  is  only  said  to  regu- 
late it. 

Tropical  Africa. 

(JUi0un5etfltan5in5 

The  religion  of  Jesus  has  probably  always 
suffered  more  from  those  who  have  misun- 
derstood than  from  those  who  have  opposed 
it.  Of  the  multitudes  who  confess  Christian- 
ity at  this  hour  how  many  have  clear  in  their 
minds  the  cardinal  distinction  established  by 
its  Founder  between  "  born  of  the  flesh  "  and 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  71 

"  born  of  the  Spirit  "  ?  By  how  many  teach- 
ers of  Christianity  even  is  not  this  funda- 
mental postulate  persistently  ignored  ! 

Natural  Law :  "  Introduction." 


What  history  testifies  to  is  first  the  partial, 
and  then  the  total,  eclipse  of  virtue  that  al- 
ways follows  the  abandonment  of  belief  in  a 
personal  God.  It  is  not,  as  has  been  pointed 
out  a  hundred  times,  that  morality  in  the  ab- 
stract disappears,  but  the  motive  and  sanc- 
tion are  gone.  There  is  nothing  to  raise  it 
from  the  dead.  Man's  attitude  to  it  is  left  to 
himself.  Grant  that  morals  have  their  own 
base  in  human  life ;  grant  that  Nature  has  a 
Religion  whose  creed  is  Science  ;  there  is  yet 
nothing  apart  from  God  to  save  the  world 
from  moral  Death.  Morality  has  the  power 
to  dictate,  but  none  to  move.  Nature  directs, 
but  cannot  control. 

Natural  Law :      Death." 


(JUortiftiJation 

The  Mortification  of  a  member,  again,  is 
based  on  the  Law  of  Degeneration.  The 
useless  member  here  is  not  cut  off,  but  simply 
relieved  as  much  as  possible  of  all  exercise. 
This   encourages  the   gradual    decay  of   the 


72  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

parts,  and  as  it  is  more  and  more  neglected 
it  ceases  to  be  a  channel  for  life  at  all.  So 
an  organism  "mortifies  "  its  members. 

Natural  Law :  "  Mortification." 


What  is  mystery  to  many  men,  what  feeds 
their  worship  and  at  the  same  time  spoils  it, 
is  that  area  round  all  great  truth  which  is 
really  capable  of  illumination,  and  into  which 
every  earnest  mind  is  permitted  and  com- 
manded to  go  with  a  light.  We  cry  "  Mys- 
tery "  long  before  the  region  of  mystery 
comes.  True  mystery  casts  no  shadows 
around.  It  is  a  sudden  and  awful  gulf  yawn- 
ing across  the  field  of  knowledge;  its  form  is 
irregular,  but  its  lips  are  clean-cut  and  sharp, 
and  the  mind  can  go  to  the  very  verge  and 
look  down  the  precipice  into  the  dim  abyss 

"  Where  writhing  clouds  unroll, 
Striving  to  utter  themselves  in  shapes." 

Natural  Law  :  "  Bio2:enesis." 


(Uartoi»ne00  of  QBrea6t6 

If,  instead  of  looking  on  and  criticising 
those  who  know  a  thing  or  two,  those  who 
think  they  are  wiser,  and  that  they  have  the 
whole  truth,  would  throw  themselves  in  among 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  73 

Others,  and  back  them,  and  try  to  work  along- 
side of  them,  they  would  get  perhaps  their 
breadth  tempered  by  earnestness  and  by  zeal, 
because  the  narrow  man  has  much  to  contrib- 
ute to  the  Christian  cause,  perhaps  more  than 
the  broad  man.  What  is  a  Christian  f 


(jXairxvai  ^au?0 

The  Laws  of  Nature  are  simply  statements 
of  the  orderly  condition  of  things  in  Nature 
—  what  is  found  in  Nature  by  a  sufficient 
number  of  competent  observers.  What  these 
Laws  are  in  themselves  is  not  agreed.  That 
they  have  any  absolute  existence,  even,  is  far 
from  certain.  They  are  relative  to  man  in 
his  many  limitations,  and  represent  for  him 
the  constant  expression  of  what  he  may  al- 
w^ays  expect  to  find  in  the  world  around  him. 
But  that  they  have  any  causal  connection 
with  the  things  around  him  is  not  to  be  con- 
ceived. The  Natural  Laws  originate  noth- 
ing, sustain  nothing  ;  they  are  merely  respon- 
sible for  uniformity  in  sustaining  what  has 
been  originated  and  what  is  beinij'  sustained. 
They  are  modes  of  operation,  therefore,  not 
operators  ;  processes,  not  powers. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Litroduction." 

The  Natural  Laws,  then,  are  great  lines 
running  not  only  through  the  world,  but,  as 


74  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

we  now  know,  through  the  universe,  reduc- 
ing it  like  parallels  of  latitude  to  intelligent 
order.  In  themselves,  be  it  once  more  repeated, 
they  may  have  no  more  absolute  existence 
than  parallels  of  latitude.  .  But  they  exist  for 
us.  They  are  drawn  for  us  to  understand 
the  part  by  some  Hand  that  drew  the  whole ; 
so  drawn,  perhaps,  that,  understanding  the 
part,  we  too,  in  time,  may  learn  to  understand 
the  whole. 

Natural  Law :  "  Introduction." 

(Uatuvaf  CKXih  ^f  irituaf 

The  Spiritual  World  is  simply  the  outer- 
most segment,  circle,  or  circles  of  the  Nat- 
ural World.  For  purposes  of  convenience 
we  separate  the  two,  just  as  we  separate  the 
animal  world  from  the  plant.  But  the  ani- 
mal world  and  the  plant  world  are  the  same 
world.  They  are  different  parts  of  one  en- 
vironment. And  the  natural  and  spiritual 
are  likewise  one.  The  inner  circles  are 
called  the  natural,  the  outer  the  spiritual. 
And  we  call  them  spiritual  simply  because 
they  are  beyond  us  or  beyond  a  part  of  us. 
What  we  have  correspondence  with,  that  we 
call  natural ;  what  we  have  little  or  no  corre- 
spondence with,  that  we  call  spiritual.  But 
when  the  appropriate  corresponding  organism 
appears  —  the  organism,  that  is,  which  can 
freely  communicate  with  these  outer  circles  — 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  75 

the  distinction  necessarily  disappears.  The 
spiritual  to  it  becomes  the  outer  circle  of  the 
natural.  Natural  Law  :  "  Death." 

(UatutaC  anb  ^uiptvnatuxai 

The  mental  and  moral  world  is  unknown 
to  the  plant.  But  it  is  real.  It  cannot  be 
athrmed  either  that  it  is  unnatural  to  the 
plant ;  although  it  might  be  said  that  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  Vegetable  Kingdom 
it  was  supernatural.  Things  are  natural  or 
supernatural  simply  according  to  where  one 
stands.  Man  is  supernatural  to  the  mineral ; 
God  is  supernatural  to  the  man.  When  a 
mineral  is  seized  upon  by  the  living  plant  and 
elevated  to  the  organic  kingdom,  no  trespass 
against  Nature  is  committed.  It  merely  en- 
ters a  larger  Environment,  which  before  was 
supernatural  to  it,  but  which  now  is  entirely 
natural.  When  the  heart  of  a  man,  again,  is 
seized  upon  by  the  quickening  Spirit  of  God, 
no  further  violence  is  done  to  natural  law. 
It  is  another  case  of  the  inorganic,  so  to 
speak,  passing  into  the  organic. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Eternal  Life." 

(Uature  a  lE)<xxxtion^ 

If  Nature  be  a  harmony,  man  in  all  his 
relations  —  physical,  mental,  moral,  and  spir- 
itual —  falls  to  be  included  within  its  circle. 


76  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

It  is  altogether  unlikely  that  man  spiritual 
should  be  violently  separated  in  all  the  con- 
ditions of  growth,  development,  and  life  from 
man  physical.  It  is  indeed  difficult  to  con- 
ceive that  one  set  of  principles  should  guide 
the  natural  life,  and  these  at  a  certain  period  — 
the  very  point  where  they  are  needed —  sud- 
denly give  place  to  another  set  of  princij^les 
altogether  new  and  unrelated.  Nature  has 
never  taught  us  to  expect  such  a  catastrophe. 
She  has  nowhere  prepared  us  for  it.  And 
man  cannot  in  the  nature  of  things,  in  the 
nature  of  thought,  in  the  nature  of  language, 
be  separated  into  two  such  incoherent  halves. 
Natural  Law  :  "  Introduction." 

(Statute  a  ^^mfiof 

With  Nature  as  the  symbol  of  all  of  har- 
mony and  beauty  that  is  known  to  man,  must 
we  still  talk  of  the  supernatural,  not  as  a  con- 
venient word,  but  as  a  different  order  of 
world,  an  unintelligible  world,  where  the 
Reign  of  Mystery  supersedes  the  Reign  of 
Law  ?         Natural  Laio :  '^  Introduction." 

(Uatute  anb  (JHan 

We  find  that  in  maintaining  this  natural 
life  Nature  has  a  share  and  man  has  a  share. 
By  far  the  larger  part  is  done  for  us  —  the 
breathing,    the  secreting,  the   circulating   of 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  77 

the  blood,  the  building  up  of  the  organism. 
And  although  the  part  which  man  plays  is  a 
minor  part,  yet,  strange  to  say,  it  is  not  less 
essential  to  the  well-being,  and  even  to  the 
being  of  the  whole.  For  instance,  man  has 
to  take  food.  He  has  nothing  to  do  with  it 
after  he  has  once  taken  it,  for  the  moment 
it  passes  his  lips  it  is  taken  in  hand  by  reflex 
actions  and  handed  on  from  one  organ  to 
another,  his  control  over  it  in  the  natural 
course  of  things  being  completely  lost.  But 
the  initial  act  was  his.  And  without  that 
nothing  could  have  been  done.  Now,  whether 
there  be  an  exact  analogy  between  the  vol- 
untary and  involuntary  functions  in  the 
body  and  the  corresponding  processes  in  the 
soul  we  do  not  at  present  inquire.  But 
this  will  indicate,  at  least,  that  man  has  his 
own  part  to  play.  Let  him  choose  Life  ;  let 
him  daily  nourish  his  soul ;  let  him  for  ever 
starve  the  old  life  ;  let  him  abide  continuously 
as  a  living  branch  in  the  Vine,  and  the  True- 
Vme  Life  will  flow  into  his  soul ;  assimilating, 
renewing,  conforming  to  Type,  till  Christ, 
pledged  by  His  own  law,  be  formed  in  him. 
Natural  Law :  "  Conformity  to  Type." 

(Uature  <KXih  (JUotafit^ 

Nature  and  Morality  provide  all    for  vir- 
tue —  except  the  Life  to  live  it. 

Natural  Law :  "Death." 


78  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

Religion  does  not  consist  in  negatives,  in 
stopping  this  sin  and  stopping  that.  The 
perfect  character  can  never  be  produced  with 
a  pruning-knife. 

The  Changed  Life. 


From  the  very  nature  of  salvation  it  is 
plain  that  the  only  thing  necessary  to  make 
it  of  no  effect  is  neglect.  Hence  the  Bible 
could  not  fail  to  lay  strong  emphasis  on  a 
word  so  vital.  It  was  not  necessary  for  it  to 
say,  How  shall  we  escape  if  we  tramj^le  upon 
the  great  salvation,  or  doubt  or  despise  or 
reject  it !  A  man  who  has  been  poisoned 
only  need  neglect  the  antidote  and  he  will 
die.  It  makes  no  difference  whether  he 
dashes  it  on  the  ground,  or  pours  it  out  of 
the  window,  or  sets  it  down  by  his  bedside 
and  stares  at  it  all  the  time  he  is  dying.  He 
will  die  just  the  same,  whether  he  destroys  it 
in  a  passion  or  coolly  refuses  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  it.  And,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  probably  most  deaths,  spiritually,  are 
gradual  dissolutions  of  the  last  class  rather 
than  rash  suicides  of  the  first. 

Natural  Laiv  :  "  Degeneration." 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  79 

If  we  neglect  the  ordinary  means  of  keep- 
ing a  garden  in  order,  how  shall  it  escape 
running  to  weeds  and  waste  ?  Or  if  we  neg- 
lect the  opportunities  for  cultivating  the 
mind,  how  shall  it  escape  ignorance  and 
feebleness  ?  So,  if  we  neglect  the  soul,  how 
shall  it  escape  the  natural  retrograde  move- 
ment, the  inevitable  relapse  into  barrenness 
and  death  ? 

Natural  Law :  "  Desfeneration." 


Religion  does  not  tell  us  to  give  things  up, 
but  rather  gives  us  something  so  much  better 
that  they  give  themselves  up.  Instead  of 
telling  people  to  give  up  things,  we  are  safer 
to  tell  them  to  "  seek  first  the  kingdom  of 
God,"  and  then  they  will  get  new  things  and 
better  things,  and  the  old  things  will  drop  off 
of  themselves.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  the 
new  heart. 

"  First !  " 

What  was  Christ  doing  in  the  carpenter's 
shop?  Practising.  Though  perfect,  we  read 
that  He  learned  obedience,  and  grew  in  wis- 
dom and  in  favor  with  God. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


80  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

^xbtv,  ^^ititua^  anb  (Uatum^ 

The  spiritual  man  is  not  taxed  beyond  the 
natural.  He  is  not  purposely  handicapped 
by  singular  limitations  or  unusual  incapac- 
ities. God  has  not  designedly  made  the  re- 
ligious life  as  hard  as  possible.  The  arrange- 
ments for  the  spiritual  life  are  the  same  as 
for  the  natural  life.  When  in  their  hours  of 
unbelief  men  challenge  their  Creator  for 
placing  the  obstacle  of  human  frailty  in  the 
way  of  their  highest  development,  their  pro- 
test is  against  the  order  of  nature.  They 
object  to  the  sun  for  being  the  source  of 
energy,  and  not  the  engine ;  to  the  carbonic 
acid  being  in  the  air,  and  not  in  the  plant. 
They  would  equip  each  organism  with  a  per- 
sonal atmosphere,  each  brain  with  a  private 
store  of  energy ;  they  would  grow  corn  in 
the  interior  of  the  body,  and  make  bread  by 
a  special  apparatus  in  the  digestive  organs. 
They  must,  in  short,  have  the  creature  trans- 
formed into  a  Creator. 

Natural  Law :    "  Environment." 


bxi^obox'2 

It  is  more  necessary  for  us  to  be  active 
than  to  be  orthodox.  To  be  orthodox  is  what 
we  wish  to  be,  but  we  can  only  truly  reach  it 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  81 

by  being  honest,  by  being  original,  by  seeing 
with  our  own  eyes,  by  believing  with  our 
own  heart. 

Natural  Law :  "  Parasitism." 

The  exclusiveness  of  Christianity,  sejDara- 
tion  from  the  world,  uncompromising  alle- 
giance to  the  Kingdom  of  God,  entire  sur- 
render of  body,  soul,  and  spirit  to  Christ,  — 
these  are  truths  which  rise  into  prominence 
from  time  to  time,  become  the  watchword  of 
insignificant  parties,  rouse  the  Church  to  at- 
tention and  the  world  to  opposition,  and  die 
down  ultimately  for  want  of  lives  to  livie 
them.  The  few  enthusiasts  who  distinguish 
in  these  requirements  the  essential  conditions 
of  entrance  into  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  are 
overpowered  by  the  weight  of  numbers,  who 
see  nothing  more  in  Christianity  than  a  mild 
religiousness,  and  who  demand  nothing  more 
in  themselves  or  in  their  fellow-Christians 
than  the  participation  in  a  conventional  wor- 
ship, the  acceptance  of  traditional  beliefs,  and 
the  living  of  an  honest  life.  Yet  nothing  is 
more  certain  than  that  the  enthusiasts  are 
right.  Any  impartial  survey  —  such  as  the 
unique  analysis  in  Ecce  Homo  —  of  the  claims 
of  Christ  and  of  the  nature  of  His  society 
will  convince  any  one  who  cares  to  make  the 
inquiry  of  the  outstanding  difference  between 


82  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

the  system  of  Christianity  iu  the  original 
contemplation  and  its  representations  in  mod- 
ern life. 

Natural  Law :  "  Classification." 


Christianity  marks  the  advent  of  what  is 
simply  a  New  Kingdom.  Its  distinctions 
from  the  Kingdom  below  it  are  fundamen- 
tal. It  demands  from  its  members  activities 
and  responses  of  an  altogether  novel  order. 
It  is,  in  the  conception  of  its  Founder,  a 
Kingdom  for  which  all  its  adherents  must 
henceforth  exclusively  live  and  work,  and 
which  opens  its  gates  alone  upon  those  who, 
having  counted  the  cost,  are  prepared  to  fol- 
low it,  if  need  be,  to  the  death.  The  surren- 
der Christ  demanded  was  absolute.  Every 
aspirant  for  membership  must  seek  Jlrst  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 

Natural  Law :  "  Classification." 


£>ut  of  gpfaee 

It  is  not  worth  seeking  the  kingdom  of 
God  unless  we  seek  it  first.  Suppose  you 
take  the  helm  out  of  a  ship  and  hang  it  over 
the  bow,  and  send  that  ship  to  sea  —  will  it 
ever  reach  the  other  side  ?  Certainly  not. 
It  will  drift  about  anyhow.  Keep  religion 
in  its  place,  and  it  will  take  you  straight 
through  life,  and  straight  to  your  Father  in 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  83 

heaven  when  life  is  over.  But  if  you  do 
not  put  it  in  its  place,  you  may  just  as  wtll 
have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Religion  out  of 
its  place  in  a  human  life  is  the  most  miser- 
able thing  in  the  world.  "  First  !  " 

The  place  of  parable  in  teaching,  and  es- 
pecially after  the  sanction  of  the  greatest  of 
Teachers,  must  always  be  recognized.  The 
very  necessities  of  language,  indeed,  demand 
this  method  of  presenting  truth.  The  tem- 
poral is  the  husk  and  framework  of  the  eter- 
nal, and  thoughts  can  be  uttered  only  through 
things.  Natural  Law  :  "  Introduction." 

Think  of  it !  the  past  is  not  only  focussed 
there,  in  a  man's  soul :  it  is  there.  All 
things  that  he  has  ever  seen,  known,  felt, 
believed,  of  the  surrounding  world  are  now 
within  him,  have  become  part  of  him,  in 
part  are  him ;  he  has  been  changed  into 
their  image.  He  may  deny  it,  he  may  re- 
sent it,  but  they  are  there.  They  do  not 
adhere  to  him,  they  are  transfused  through 
him.  He  cannot  alter  or  rub  them  out. 
They  are  not  in  his  mem^ory  :  they  are  in 
him.  His  soul  is  as  they  have  filled  it,  made 
it,  left  it.  The  Changed  Life. 


84  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 


(perfect  ^ife 

Perfect  life  is  not  merely  the  possessing 
of  perfect  functions,  but  of  perfect  functions 
13erfectly  adjusted  to  each  other,  and  all  con- 
spiring to  a  single  result,  the  perfect  working 
of  the  whole  organism. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Growth." 


gpetrfe(jtion 

Patience,    kindness,    generosity,    humility, 
courtesy,    unselfishness,    good-temper,   guile- 
lessness,  sincerity,  —  these  make  up  the  su- 
preme gift,  the  stature  of  the  perfect  man. 
The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  JVorld. 


(personality 

If  events  change  men,  much  more  persons. 
No  man  can  meet  another  on  the  street  with- 
out making  some  mark  upon  him.  We  say 
we  exchange  words  when  we  meet ;  what  we 
exchange  is  souls.  And  when  intercourse  is 
very  close  and  very  frequent,  so  complete  is 
this  exchange  that  recognizable  bits  of  the 
one  soul  begin  to  show  in  the  other's  nature, 
and  the  second  is  conscious  of  a  similar  and 
growing  debt  to  the  first. 

The  Changed  Life. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  85 

(J)et0onaeit^  of  C^xxsi 

Of  course  there  is  a  sense,  and  a  very 
wonderful  sense,  in  which  a  Great  Person- 
ality breathes  upon  all  who  come  within  its 
influence  an  abiding  peace  and  trust.  Men 
can  be  to  other  men  as  the  shadow  of  a 
great  rock  in  a  thirsty  land.  Much  more 
Christ ;  much  more  Christ  as  Perfect  Man  ; 
much  more  still  as  Saviour  of  the  world. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

gj^enomena:  ^?eir  Unit^ 

That  the  Phenomena  of  the  Spiritual 
World  are  in  analogy  with  the  Phenomena 
of  the  Natural  World  requires  no  restate- 
ment. Since  Plato  enunciated  his  doctrine 
of  the  Cave  or  of  the  twice-divided  line ; 
since  Christ  spake  in  parables  ;  since  Plo- 
tinus  wrote  of  the  world  as  an  imaged  image  ; 
since  the  mysticism  of  Swedenborg  ;  since 
Bacon  and  Pascal  ;  since  "  Sartor  Resartus  " 
and  "  In  Memoriam,"  —  it  has  been  all  but 
a  commonplace  with  thinkers  that  "  the  in- 
visible things  of  God  from  the  creation  of  the 
world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by 
the  things  that  are  made."    Milton's  question— 

"  What  if  earth 
Be  but  the  shadow  of  heaven,  and  things  therein    ^^ 
Each  to  other  like  more  than  on  earth  is  thought  i 

is  now  superfluous.  ^^ 

Natural  Law  :  ''  Introduction. 


86  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 


\P9ra0e0 

I  do  not  think  we  ourselves  are  aware 
how  much  our  religious  life  is  made  up  of 
phrases  ;  how  much  of  what  we  call  Chris- 
tian experience  is  only  a  dialect  of  the 
Churches,  a  mere  religious  phraseology,  with 
almost  nothing  behind  it  in  what  we  really 
feel  and  know. 

Pax   Vohiscum. 

(p^ea0ute*(git>ing 

There  is  a  difference  between  trying  to 
please  and  giving  pleasure.  Give  pleasure. 
Lose  no  chance  of  giving  pleasure.  For 
that  is  the  ceaseless  and  anonymous  triumph 
of  a  truly  loving  spirit. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Man  as  a  rational  and  moral  being  demands 
a  pledge  that  if  he  depends  on  Nature  for 
any  given  result,  on  the  ground  that  Nature 
has  previously  led  him  to  expect  such  a  re- 
sult, his  intellect  shall  not  be  insulted  nor  his 
confidence  in  her  abused.  If  he  is  to  trust 
Nature,  in  short,  it  must  be  guaranteed  to 
him  that  in  doing  so  he  will  *'  never  be  put 
to  confusion." 

Natural  Law  :  "  Introduction." 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  87 

True  poetry  is  only  science  in  another 
form.  And  long  before  it  was  possible  for 
religion  to  give  scientific  expression  to  its 
greatest  truths,  men  of  insight  uttered  them- 
selves in  psalms  which  could  not  have  been 
truer  to  Nature  had  the  most  modern  light 
controlled  the  inspiration. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Environment." 


^xactxcai  (gefi^ion 

Let  me  remind  you  that  theology  is  the 
most  abstruse  thing  in  the  world,  but  that 
practical  religion  is  the  simplest  thing.  If 
any  of  you  want  to  know  how  to  begin  to  be 
a  Christian,  all  I  can  say  is  that  you  should 
begin  to  do  the  next  thing  you  find  to  be  done 
as  Christ  would  have  done  it. 

What  is  a  Christian'^ 


^xaciiu 

What  makes  a  man  a  good  cricketer  ?  Prac- 
tice. What  makes  a  man  a  good  artist,  a  good 
sculptor,  a  good  musician  ?  Practice.  What 
makes  a  man  a  good  linguist,  a  good  stenog- 
rapher? Practice.  What  makes  a  man  a 
good  man?     Practice.     Nothing  else.    There 


88  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

is  nothing  capricious  about  religion.  We  do 
not  get  the  soul  in  different  ways,  under  dif- 
ferent laws,  from  those  in  which  we  get  the 
body  and  the  mind.  If  a  man  does  not  exer- 
cise his  arm,  he  develops  no  biceps  muscle  ; 
and  if  a  mau  does  not  exercise  his  soul,  he 
acquires  no  muscle  in  his  soul,  no  strength  of 
character,  no  vigor  of  moral  fire,  nor  beauty 
of  spiritual  growth. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Will  the  evolutionist  who  admits  the  re- 
generation of  the  frog  under  the  modifying 
influence  of  a  continued  correspondence  with 
a  new  environment  care  to  question  the  possi- 
bility of  the  soul  acquiring  such  a  faculty  as 
that  of  Prayer,  the  marvellous  breathing- 
function  of  the  new  creature,  when  in  con- 
tact with  the  atmosphere  of  a  besetting  God  ? 
Is  the  change  from  the  earthly  to  the  heav- 
enly more  mysterious  than  the  change  from 
the  aquatic  to  the  terrestrial  mode  of  life  ? 
Natural  Law :  "  Eternal  Life." 


What  a  very  strange  thing,  is  it  not,  for 
man  to  pray  ?  It  is  the  symbol  at  once  of 
his  littleness  and  of  his  greatness.     Here  the 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  89 

sense  of  imperfection,  controlled  and  silenced 
in  the  narrower  reaches  of  his  being,  becomes 
audible.  Now  he  must  utter  himself.  The 
sense  of  need  is  so  real,  and  the  sense  of  En- 
vironment, that  he  calls  out  to  it,  addressing 
it  articulately  and  imploring  it  to  satisfy  his 
need.  Surely  there  is  nothing  more  touch- 
ino;  in  Nature  than  this  !     Man  could  never 

o 

so  expose  himself,  so  break  through  all  con- 
straint, except  from  a  dire  necessity. 

Natural  Law :  "  Environment." 


The  problems  of  the  heart  and  conscience 
are  infinitely  more  perplexing  than  those  of 
the  intellect.  Has  love  no  future  ?  Has 
right  no  triumph  ?  Is  the  unfinished  self  to 
remain  unfinished?  Again,  the  alternatives 
are  two  —  Christianity  or  Pessimism.  But 
when  we  ascend  the  further  height  of  the  re- 
ligious nature  the  crisis  comes.  There,  with- 
out Environment,  the  darkness  is  unutterable. 
So  maddening  now  becomes  the  mystery  that 
men  are  compelled  to  construct  an  Environ- 
ment for  themselves.  No  Environment  here 
is  unthinkable.  An  altar  of  some  sort  men 
must  have  —  God,  or  Nature,  or  Law.  But 
the  anguish  of  Atheism  is  only  a  negative 
proof  of  man's  incompleteness. 

Natural  Law :  "  Environment." 


90  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

I  would  not  rob  a  man  of  his  problems, 
nor  would  I  have  another  man  rob  me  of  my 
problems.  They  are  the  delight  of  life,  and 
the  whole  intellectual  world  would  be  stale 
and  unprofitable  if  we  knew  everything. 

How  to  Learn  How. 


(proportion 

A  man  may  take  a  dollar  or  a  half-dollar 
and  hold  it  to  his  eyes  so  closely  that  he  will 
hide  the  sun  from  him.  Or  he  may  so  focus 
his  telescope  that  a  fly  or  a  boulder  may  be 
as  large  as  a  mountain.  A  man  may  hold  a 
certain  doctrine  very  intensely  —  a  doctrine 
which  has  been  looming  upon  his  horizon  for 
the  last  six  months,  let  us  say,  and  which  has 
thrown  everything  else  out  of  proportion,  it 
has  become  so  big  itself.  Now,  let  us  beware 
of  distortion  in  the  arrangement  of  the  relig- 
ious truths  which  we  hold. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

gpunis^ment 

The  punishment  of  sin  is  inseparably 
bound  up  with  itself. 

Natural  I^aw  :  "  Mortification." 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  91 

(putting  ^ff  anb  ^uttxnq  bn 

Escape  means  nothing  more  than  the  grad- 
ual emergence  of  the  higher  being  from  the 
lower,  and  nothing  less.  It  means  the  grad- 
ual putting  off  of  all  that  cannot  enter  the 
higher  state,  or  heaven,  and  simultaneously 
the  putting  on  o^^  Christ.  It  involves  the 
slow  completing  of  the  soul  and  the  develop- 
ment of  the  capacity  for  God. 

Natural  Law :  "  Degeneration." 


If  you  want  to  get  the  kingdom  of  God 
into  your  workshop  or  into  your  home,  let 
the  quarrelling  be  stopped.  Live  in  peace 
and  harmony  and  brotherliness  with  every 
one.  For  the  kingdom  of  God  is  a  kingdom 
of  brothers.  It  is  a  great  society,  founded 
by  Jesus  Christ,  of  all  the  people  who  try 
to  be  like  Him,  and  live  to  make  the  world 
better  and  sweeter  and  happier. 

'' First  r' 


ftuestions 

The  only  legitimate  questions  one  dare  put 
to  Nature  are  those  which  concern  universal 


92  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

human  good  and  the  Divine  interpretation 
of  things.  These  I  conceive  may  be  there 
actually  studied  at  first-hand,  and  before 
their  purity  is  soiled  by  human  touch.  We 
have  Truth  in  Nature  as  it  came  from  God. 
And  it  has  to  be  read  with  the  same  unbiassed 
mind,  the  same  open  eye,  the  same  faith,  and 
the  same  reverence  as  all  other  Revelation. 
All  that  is  found  there,  whatever  its  place  in 
Theology,  whatever  its  orthodoxy  or  hetero- 
doxy, whatever  its  narrowness  or  its  breadth, 
we  are  bound  to  accept  as  Doctrine  from 
which  on  the  lines  of  Science  there  is  no 
escape. 

Natural  Laic:  "  Introduction." 


(Reason  an6  ^6e5ien(je 

There  are  two  organs  of  knowledge  —  the 
one  Reason,  the  other  Obedience.  Begin  to 
obey  Christ,  and,  doing  His  will,  you  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  of  God. 

How  to  Learn  How. 


(Redem:ption 

Out  of  the  infinite  complexity  there  rises 
an  infinite  simplicity,  the  foreshadowing  of  a 
final  unity  of  that 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  93 

"  One  God,  one  law,  one  element. 

And  one  far-off  divine  event, 

To  which  the  whole  creation  moves.  "  * 

This  is  the  final  triumph  of  Continuity, 
the  heart  secret  of  Creation,  the  unspoken 
prophecy  of  Christianity.  To  Science,  de- 
iiuing  it  as  a  working  principle,  this  mighty 
process  of  amelioration  is  simply  Evolution. 
To  Christianity,  discerning  the  end  through 
the  means,  it  is  Redemption.  These  silent 
and  patient  processes,  elaborating,  eliminat- 
ing, developing  all  from  the  first  of  time, 
conductinor  the  evolution  from  millennium  to 
millennium  with  unaltering  purpose  and  un- 
faltering power,  are  the  early  stages  in  the 
redemptive  work  —  the  unseen  approach  of 
that  Kingdom  whose  strange  mark  is  that  it 
*'  Cometh  without  observation."  And  these 
Kingdoms,  rising  tier  above  tier  in  ever-in- 
creasing sublimity  and  beauty,  their  founda- 
tions visibly  fixed  in  the  past,  their  progress, 
and  the  direction  of  their  progress,  being  facts 
in  Nature  still,  are  the  signs  which,  since  the 
Magi  saw  His  star  in  the  East,  have  never 
been  wanting  from  the  firmament  of  truth, 
and  which  in  every  age,  with  growing  clear- 
ness to  the  wise  and  with  ever-gathering 
mystery  to  the  uninitiated,  proclaim  that 
'•  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand." 

Natural  Law :  "  Classification." 

*  "  In  Memoriam," 


94  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

(geffection 

In  looking  at  a  mirror  one  does  not  see  the 
mirror  or  think  of  it,  but  only  of  what  it  re- 
flects. For  a  mirror  never  calls  attention  to 
itself  except  when  there  are  flaws  in  it. 

The  Changed  Life. 


(Regeneration 

A  few  raw,  nnspiritual,  uninspiring  men 
were  admitted  to  the  inner  circle  of  His 
friendship.  The  change  began  at  once. 
Day  by  day  we  can  almost  see  the  first  dis- 
ciples grow.  First  there  steals  over  them 
the  faintest  possible  adumbration  of  His 
character,  and  occasionally,  very  occasion- 
ally, they  do  a  thing  or  say  a  thing  that 
they  could  not  have  done  or  said  had  they 
not  been  living  there.  Slowly  the  spell  of 
His  life  deepens.  Reach  after  reach  of 
their  nature  is  overtaken,  thawed,  subju- 
gated, sanctified.  Their  manners  soften, 
their  words  become  more  gentle,  their  con- 
duct more  unselfish.  As  swallows  who 
have  found  a  summer,  as  frozen  buds  the 
spring,  their  starved  humanity  bursts  into 
a  fuller  life.  They  do  not  know  how  it  is, 
but  they  are  different  men.  One  day  they 
find  themselves  like  their  Master,  going 
about  and  doinoj  good.     To  themselves  it  is 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  95 

unaccountable,  but  they  cannot  do  otherwise. 
They  were  not  told  to  do  it,  it  came  to  them 
to  do  it.  But  the  people  who  watch  them 
know  well  how  to  account  for  it  —  "They 
have  been,"  they  whisper,  "  with  Jesus." 
Already,  even,  the  mark  and  seal  of  His 
character  is  upon  them  —  "They  have  been 
with  Jesus."  Unparalleled  phenomenon, 
that  these  poor  fishermen  should  remind 
other  men  of  Christ!  Stupendous  victory 
and  mystery  of  regeneration,  that  mortal 
men  should  suggest  to  the  world  God! 

The  Changed  Life. 


(ge%ion 

Religion  is  not  a  strange  or  added  thing, 
but  the  inspiration  of  the  secular  life,  the 
breathing  of  an  eternal  spirit  through  this 
temporal  world. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


(ge%ion  ^^en  to  (gff 

Religion  must  ripen  its  fruits  for  every 
temperament,  and  the  way  even  into  its 
highest  heights  must  be  by  a  gateway 
through  which  the  peoples  of  the  world 
may  pass. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


96  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 


(genuneiation 

It  is  not  hard  to  give  up  our  rights.  They 
are  often  external.  The  difficult  thing  is  to 
give  up  ourselves.  The  more  difficult  thing 
still  is  not  to  seek  things  for  ourselves.  After 
we  have  sought  them,  bought  them,  won  them, 
deserved  them,  we  have  taken  the  cream  off 
them  for  ourselves  already. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


(He0t  t^xoxxc^^  1X)orft 

"  Learn  of  Me,"  He  says,  "  and  ye  shall 
find  rest  to  your  souls."  Now,  consider  the 
extraordinary  originality  of  this  utterance. 
How  novel  the  connection  between  these  two 
words  "  Learn  "  and  "  Rest  "  !  How  few  of 
us  have  ever  associated  them  —  ever  thought 
that  Rest  was  a  thing  to  be  learned ;  ever 
laid  ourselves  out  for  it  as  we  would  to  learn 
a  language  ;  ever  practised  it  as  we  would 
practise  the  violin !  Does  it  not  show  how 
entirely  new  Christ's  teaching  still  is  to  the 
world,  that  so  old  and  threadbare  an  aphor- 
ism should  still  be  so  little  applied  ?  The  last 
thing  most  of  us  would  have  thought  of 
would  have  been  to  associate  Hest  with  Work, 

Pax  Vohiscum. 


2)lvmitie  is  m  our 
own  plain, 


calm  bumanit^ 
anD  in  no 
mystic  rapture 


ot  tbe  soul. 

The  Changed 

LIFE. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  97 

^^e  (gesutteetion 

On  what  does  the  Christian  argument  for 
Immortality  really  rest  ?  It  stands  upon  the 
pedestal  on  which  the  theologian  rests  the 
whole  of  historical  Christianity  —  the  Resur- 
rection of  Jesus  Christ. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Eternal  Life." 

(Retn6ution 

If  it  makes  no  impression  on  a  man  to 
know  that  God  will  visit  his  iniquities  upon 
him,  he  cannot  blind  himself  to  the  fact  that 
Nature  will.  Do  we  not  all  know  what  it  is 
to  be  punished  by  Nature  for  disobeying  her? 
We  have  looked  round  the  wards  of  a  hos- 
pital, a  prison,  or  a  madhouse,  and  seen  there 
Nature  at  work  squaring  her  accounts  with 
sin.  And  we  knew  as  we  looked  that  if  no 
Judge  sat  on  the  throne  of  heaven  at  all,  there 
was  a  Judgment  throne,  where  an  inexorable 
Nature  was  crying  aloud  for  justice,  and  car- 
rying out  her  heavy  sentences  for  violated 
laws. 

Natural  Law :  "  Degeneration." 


As  memory  scans  the  past,  above  and  be- 
yond all  the  transitory  j^leasures  of  life  there 


98  HKLPFUL    THOUGHTS 

leap  forward  those  supreme  hours  when  you 
have  been  enabled  to  do  unnoticed  kindnesses 
to  those  round  about  you  —  things  too  trifling 
to  speak  about,  but  which  you  feel  have  en- 
tered into  your  eternal  life. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


(gei?efation 

Revelation  never  volunteers  anything  that 
man  could  discover  for  himself  —  on  the  prin- 
ciple, probably,  that  it  is  only  when  he  is 
capable  of  discovering  it  that  he  is  capable  of 
appreciating  it 

Natural  Law  :  "  Introduction." 


(gei?enge 

Yesterday  you  got  a  certain  letter.  You 
sat  down  and  wrote  a  reply  which  almost 
scorched  the  paper.  You  picked  the  cruellest 
adjectives  you  knew,  and  sent  it  forth,  with- 
out a  pang,  to  do  its  ruthless  work.  You  did 
tliat  because  your  life  was  set  in  the  wrong 
key.  You  began  the  day  with  the  mirror 
placed  at  the  wrong  angle.  To-morrow,  at 
daybreak,  turn  it  toward  Him,  and  even  to 
your  enemy  the  fashion  of  your  countenance 
will  be  changed.  Wliatever  you  then  do, 
one  thing  you  will  find  you  could  not  do  — 
you  could  not  write  that  letter.     Your  first 


HELPFUL    TFIOUGHTS  99 

impulse  may  be  the  same,  your  judgment  may 
be  unchanged,  but  if  you  try  it  the  ink  will 
dry  on  your  pen,  and  you  will  rise  from  your 
desk  an  unavenged,  but  a  greater  and  more 
Christian  man. 

How  to  Learn  How. 


(Righteousness 

Righteousness,  of  course,  is  just  doing  what 
is  right.  Any  boy  who,  instead  of  being  quar- 
relsome, lives  at  peace  with  the  other  boys 
has  the  Kingdom  of  God  within  him.  Any 
boy  whose  heart  is  filled  with  joy  because  he 
does  what  is  riojht  has  the  Kingdom  of  God 
within  him. 

"  First !  " 


^aft>ation 

There  is  a  natural  principle  in  man  lower- 
ing him,  deadening  him,  pulling  him  down  by 
inches  to  the  mere  animal  plane,  blinding 
reason,  searing  conscience,  paralyzing  will. 
This  is  the  active  destroying  principle,  or 
Sin.  Now,  to  counteract  this,  God  has  dis- 
covered to  us  another  principle,  which  will 
stop  this  drifting  process  in  the  soul  and 
make  it  drift  the  other  way.  This  is  the  ac- 
tive saving  principle,  or  Salvation.     If  a  man 


100  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

finds  the  first  of  these  powers  furiously  at 
work  within  him,  dragging  his  whole  life 
downward  to  destruction,  there  is  only  one 
way  to  escape  his  fate — to  take  resolute  hold 
of  the  upper  power,  and  be  borne  by  it  to  the 
opposite  pole. 

Natural  Law :  "  Degeneration." 

Mark  well  the  si3lendor  of  this  idea  of  sal- 
vation. It  is  not  merely  final  "  safety,"  to  be 
forgiven  sin,  to  evade  the  curse.  It  is  not, 
vaguely,  "  to  get  to  heaven."  It  is  to  be  con- 
formed to  the  Image  of  the  Son.  It  is  for 
these  poor  elements  to  attain  to  the  Supreme 
Beauty.  The  organizing  Life  being  Eternal, 
so  must  this  Beauty  be  immortal.  Its  prog- 
ress toward  the  Immaculate  is  already  guar- 
anteed. And  more  than  all,  there  is  here 
fulfilled  the  sublimest  of  all  prophecies ;  not 
Beauty  alone,  but  Unity,  is  secured  by  the 
type  —  Unity  of  man  and  man,  God  and  man, 
God  and  Christ  and  man,  till  "all  shall  be 
one." 

Natural  Law  :  "  Conformity  to  Type." 

^ancti^ication 

Here  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  sanc- 
tification  is  compressed  into  a  sentence :  Re- 
flect the  character  of  Christ,  and  you  will 
become  like  Christ. 

The  Changed  Life. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  101 

It  is  the  want  of  the  discerning  faculty,  the 
clairvoyant  j^ower  of  seeing  the  eternal  in  the 
temporal,  rather  than  the  failure  of  the  reason, 
that  begets  the  sceptic. 

Natural  Law:  "Introduction." 

It  is  quite  erroneous  to  suppose  that  Sci- 
ence ever  overthrows  Faith,  if  by  that  is 
implied  that  any  natural  truth  can  oppose 
successfully  any  single  spiritual  truth.  Sci- 
ence cannot  overthrow  Faith  ;  but  it  shakes 
it.  Its  own  doctrines,  grounded  in  Nature, 
are  so  certain  that  the  truths  of  Religion, 
resting  to  most  men  on  Authority,  are  felt  to 
be  strangely  insecure.  The  difficulty,  there- 
fore, which  men  of  Science  feel  about  Relig- 
ion is  real  and  inevitable,  and  in  so  far  as 
Doubt  is  a  conscientious  tribute  to  the  invio- 
lability of  Nature  it  is  entitled  to  respect. 

Natural  Law :  "  Preface." 

No  single  fact  in  Science  has  ever  discred 
ited  a  fact  in  Religion. 

Natural  Law :  "  Introduction.** 


102  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

#eff^6eniae 

No  man  is  called  to  a  life  of  self-denial  for 
its  own  sake.  It  is  in  order  to  a  compensa- 
tion which,  though  sometimes  difficult  to  see, 
is  always  real  and  always  proportionate.  No 
truth,  perhaps,  in  practical  religion,  is  more 
lost  siMit  of.  We  cherish  somehow  a  lino^er- 
in<T  rebellion  ao-ainst  the  doctrine  of  self-denial 
—  as  if  our  nature  or  our  circumstances  or 
our  conscience  dealt  with  us  severely  in  load- 
ing us  with  the  daily  cross.  But  is  it  not 
plain,  after  all,  that  the  life  of  self-denial  is 
the  more  abundant  life  —  more  abundant  just 
in  proportion  to  the  ampler  crucitixion  of  the 
narrower  life  ?  Is  it  not  a  clear  case  of  ex- 
change —  an  excliange,  however,  where  the 
advantage  is  entirely  on  our  side  ?  We  give 
up  a  correspondence  in  which  there  is  a  little 
life  to  enjoy  a  correspondence  in  which  there 
is  an  abundant  life.  What  though  we  sacri- 
fice a  hundred  such  correspondences  ?  We 
make  but  the  more  room  for  the  great  one 
that  is  left. 

Natural  Law :  "  Mortification." 


Obviously,  if  the  mind  turns  away  from  one 
part  of  the  environment,  it  will  only  do  so 
under    some   temptation  to   correspond  with 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  103 

another.  This  temptation,  at  bottom,  can 
only  come  from  one  source  —  the  love  of 
self.  The  irreligious  man's  correspondences 
are  concentrated  upon  himself.  He  worships 
himself.  Self-gratification  rather  than  self- 
denial  ;  independence  rather  than  submission, 
—  these  are  the  rules  of  life.  And  this  is  at 
once  the  poorest  and  the  commonest  form  of 
idolatry. 

Natural  Law :  "  Death." 


After  you  have  been  kind,  after  Love  has 
stolen  forth  into  the  world  and  done  its  beau- 
tiful work,  go  back  into  the  shade  again  and 
say  nothing  about  it.  Love  hides  even  from 
itself.     Love  waives  even  self-satisfaction. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


The  Life  of  the  senses,  high  and  low,  may 
perfect  itself  in  Nature.  Even  the  Life  of 
thought  may  find  a  large  complement  in  sur- 
rounding things.  But  the  higher  thought  and 
the  conscience  and  the  religious  Life  can  only 
perfect  themselves  in  God. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Environment." 


104  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

Causes  and  effects  are  eternal  arrange- 
ments,, set  in  the  constitution  of  the  world, 
fixed  beyond  man's  ordering.  What  man 
can  do  is  to  place  himself  in  the  midst  of  a 
chain  of  sequences. 

Pax  Vobiscum, 

There  is,  for  example,  a  Sense  of  Sight  in 
the  religious  nature.  Neglect  this,  leave  it 
undeveloped,  and  you  never  miss  it.  You 
simply  see  nothing.  But  develop  it  and  you 
see  God. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Degeneration." 

The  distressing  incompetence  of  which 
most  of  us  are  conscious  in  trying  to  work 
out  our  spiritual  experience  is  due,  perhaps, 
less  to  the  diseased  will  which  we  commonly 
blame  for  it  than  to  imperfect  knowledge  of 
the  right  conditions.  It  does  not  occur  to  us 
how  natural  the  spiritual  is.  We  still  strive 
for  some  strange  transcendent  thing ;  we 
seek  to  promote  life  by  methods  as  unnat- 
ural as  they  prove  unsuccessful ;  and  only 
the  utter  incomprehensibility  of    the  whole 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  105 

region  prevents  us  seeing  fully  —  what  we 
already  half  suspect  —  how  completely  we 
are  missing  the  road.  Living  in  the  spir- 
itual world,  nevertheless,  is  just  as  simple  as 
living  in  the  natural  world  ;  and  it  is  the 
same  kind  of  simplicity.  It  is  the  same  kind 
of  simplicity,  for  it  is  the  same  kind  of  world 
—  there  are  not  two  kinds  of  worlds.  The 
conditions  of  life  in  the  one  are  the  condi- 
tions of  life  in  the  other.  And  till  these 
conditions  are  sensibly  grasped  as  the  condi- 
tions of  all  life  it  is  impossible  that  the  per- 
sonal effort  after  the  highest  life  should  be 
other  than  a  blind  struggle  carried  on  in 
fruitless  sorrow  and  humiliation. 

Natural  Law :  "  Environment." 

If  sin  is  estrangement  from  God,  this  very 
estrangement  is  Death.  It  is  a  want  of  cor- 
respondence. If  sin  is  selfishness,  it  is  con- 
ducted at  the  expense  of  life.  Its  wages  are 
Death  —  "  He  that  lovetli  his  life,"  said  Christ, 
"  shall  lose  it."      Natural  Law :  "  Death." 

^in  is  (gpostas^ 

To  the  estrangement  of  the  soul  from  God 
the  best  of  theology  traces  the  ultimate  cause 
of  sin.  Sin  is  simply  apostasy  from  God,  un- 
belief in  God.        ¥aturaL  Law :  "  Death." 


106  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

^ind  Cfa00tfie6 

There  are  two  great  classes  of  Sins  —  sins 
of  the  Body  and  sins  of  the  Disposition.  The 
Prodigal  Son  may  be  taken  as  a  type  of  the 
first,  the  Elder  Brother  of  the  second. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Sincerity  of  purpose  endeavors  to  see 
things  as  they  are,  and  rejoices  to  find  them 
better  than  suspicion  feared  or  calumny  de- 
nounced.   The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

There  are  people  who  go  about  the  world 
looking  out  for  slights,  and  they  are  neces- 
sarily miserable,  for  they  find  them  at  every 
turn  —  especially  the  imaginary  ones.  One 
has  the  same  pity  for  such  men  as  for  the 
very  poor.  They  are  the  morally  illiterate. 
They  have  had  no  real  education,  for  they  have 
never  learned  how  to  live.     Pax  Vohiscum. 

All  thorough  work  is  slow,  all  true  devel- 
opment by  minute,  slight  and  insensible  meta- 
morphoses. The  higher  the  structure,  more- 
over, the  slower  the  progress. 

The  Changed  Life. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  107 

It  is  for  active  service  soldiers  are  drilled 
and  trained  and  fed  and  armed.  That  is 
why  you  and  I  are  in  tlie  world  at  all  —  not 
to  prejDare  to  go  out  of  it  some  day,  but  to 
serve  God  actively  in  it  now.  It  is  mon- 
strous and  shameful  and  cowardly  to  talk 
of  seekinif  the  kino-dom  last.  It  is  shirkinoj 
duty,  abandoning  one's  rightful  post,  playing 
into  the  enemy's  hand  by  doing  nothing  to 
turn  his  flank. 

''First!'' 

Just  as  in  an  organism  we  have  these  three 
things  —  formative  matter,  formed  matter, 
and  the  forming  principle,  or  life,  so  in  the 
soul  we  have  the  old  nature,  the  renewed 
nature,  and  the  transforming  Life. 

Natural  Law :  "  Conformity  to  Type." 


The  soul,  in  its  highest  sense,  is  a  vast 
capacity  for  God.  It  is  like  a  curious  cham- 
ber added  on  to  being,  and  somehow  in- 
volvins^  beinoj — a  chamber  with  elastic 
and  contractile  walls,  which  can  be  ex- 
panded, with    God   as  its  guest,  inimitably. 


108  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

but  which  without  God  shrinks  and  shrivels 
until  every  vestige  of  the  Divine  is  gone, 
and  God's  image  is  left  without  God's 
Spirit.  One  cannot  call  what  is  left  a  soul ; 
it  is  a  shrunken,  useless  organ,  a  capacity 
sentenced  to  death  by  disuse,  which  droops 
as  a  withered  hand  by  the  side,  and  cumbers 
nature  like  a  rotted  branch.  Nature  has  her 
revenge  upon  neglect  as  well  as  upon  extrava- 
gance. Misuse,  with  her,  is  as  mortal  a  sin  as 
abuse. 

Natural  Law:  "  Degeneration." 

Source  of  JSife 

It  will  be  disputed  by  none  that  the  Source 
of  Life  in  the  Spiritual  World  is  God.  And  as 
the  same  law  of  Biogenesis  prevails  in  both 
spheres,  we  may  reason  from  the  higher  to 
the  lower,  and  affirm  it  to  be  at  least  likely 
that  the  origin  of  life  there  has  been  the 
same. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Classification." 


Many  a  man  thinks  he  is  looking  at  truth 
when  he  is  only  looking  at  the  spectacles  he 
has  put  on  to  see  it  with.  He  is  looking  at 
his  own  spectacles. 

How  to  Learn  How. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  109 


The  well-defined  spiritual  life  is  not  only 
the  highest  life,  but  it  is  also  the  most  easily 
lived.  The  whole  cross  is  more  easily  car- 
ried than  the  half.  It  is  the  man  who  tries 
to  make  the  best  of  both  worlds  who  makes 
nothing-  of  either.  And  he  who  seeks  to 
serve  two  masters  misses  the  benediction  of 
both.  But  he  who  has  taken  his  stand,  who 
has  drawn  a  boundary-line  -sharp  and  deep 
about  his  religious  life,  who  has  marked  off 
all  beyond  as  for  ever  forbidden  ground  to 
him,  hnds  the  yoke  easy  and  the  burden  light. 
For  this  forbidden  environment  comes  to  be 
as  if  it  were  not.  His  faculties,  falling  out 
of  correspondence,  slowly  lose  their  sensibil- 
ities. And  the  balm  of  Death  numbing  his 
lower  nature  releases  him  for  the  scarce  dis- 
turbed communion  of  a  higher  life.  So  even 
here  to  die  is  gain. 

Natural  Law :  "  Mortification." 


The  Spiritual  World  is  not  a  castle  in  the 
air,  of  an  architecture  unknown  to  earth  or 
heaven,  but  a  fair,  ordered  realm  furnished 
with  many  familiar  things  and  ruled  by  well- 
remembered  Laws. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Introduction." 


110  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

The  test  of  spirituality  is  that  you  cannot 
tell  whence  it  cometh  or  whither  it  goeth. 
If  you  can  tell,  if  you  can  account  for  it  on 
philosophical  principles,  on  the  doctrine  of 
influence,  on  strength  of  will,  on  a  favorable 
environment,  it  is  not  growth.  It  may  be  so 
far  a  success ;  it  may  be  a  perfectly  honest, 
even  remarkable  and  praiseworthy  imitation, 
but  it  is  not  the  real  thing.  The  fruits  are 
wax,  the  flowers  artificial  —  you  can  tell 
whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it  goeth. 

Natural  Law:  "Growth." 

Two  painters  each  painted  a  picture  to 
illustrate  his  conception  of  rest.  The  first 
chose  for  his  scene  a  still,  lone  lake  among 
the  far-off  mountains.  The  second  threw  on 
his  canvas  a  thundering  waterfall,  with  a 
fragile  birch  tree  bending  over  the  foam  ; 
at  the  fork  of  a  branch,  almost  wet  with  the 
cataract's  spray,  a  robin  sat  on  its  nest.  The 
first  was  only  Stagnation  ;  the  last  was  Rest. 
For  in  Rest  there  are  always  two  elements 
—  tranquillity  and  energy  ;  silence  and  turbu- 
lence ;  creation  and  destruction  ;  fearlessness 
and  fearfulness.     This  it  was  in  Christ. 

Pax   Vohiscum. 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  111 

As  the  branch  ascends,  and  the  bud  bursts, 
and  the  fruit  reddens  under  the  co-operation 
of  influences  from  the  outside  air,  so  man 
rises  to  the  higher  stature  under  invisible 
pressures  from  without. 

The  Changed  Life. 


^uflmi00ion 

O  preposterous  and  vain  man,  thou  who 
couldest  not  make  a  finger-nail  of  thy  body, 
thinkest  thou  to  fashion  this  wonderful, 
mysterious,  subtle  soul  of  thine  after  the  in- 
effable Image  ?  Wilt  thou  ever  permit  thy- 
self to  be  conformed  to  the  Image  of  the  Son  ? 
Wilt  thou,  who  canst  not  add  a  cubit  to  thy 
stature,  submit  to  he  raised  by  the  Type-Life 
within  thee  to  the  perfect  stature  of  Christ  ? 

Natural  Law :  "  Conformity  to  Type." 


Souls  are  made  sweet  not  by  taking  the 
acid  fluids  out,  but  by  putting  something  in 
—  a  great  Love,  a  new  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of 
Christ. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


112  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

Children  do  not  need  Laws,  except  Laws 
in  the  sense  of  commandments.  They  repose 
with  simplicity  on  authority,  and  ask  no 
questions.  But  there  comes  a  time,  as  tlie 
world  reaches  its  manhood,  when  they  will 
ask  questions,  and  stake,  moreover,  every- 
thinof  on  the  answers.  That  time  is  now. 
Hence  we  must  exhibit  our  doctrines,  not 
lying  athwart  the  lines  of  the  world's  think- 
ing, in  a  place  reserved,  and  therefore 
shunned,  for  the  Great  Exception  ;  but  in 
their  kinship  to  all  truth  and  in  their  Law- 
relation  to  the  whole  of  Nature. 

Natural  Laio  :  "  Introduction." 


^em^et:  3t0  (Reuefation 

Temper  is  significant.  It  is  not  in  what  it 
is  alone,  but  in  what  it  reveals.  It  is  a  test 
for  love,  a  symptom,  a  revelation  of  an  unlov- 
ing nature  at  bottom.  It  is  the  intermittent 
fever  which  bespeaks  unintermittent  disease 
within  ;  tlie  occasional  bubble  escaping  to  the 
surface  which  betrays  some  rottenness  under- 
neath ;  a  sample  of  the  most  hidden  prod- 
ucts of  the  soul  dropiDcd  involuntarily  when 
off  one's  guard;  in  a  word,  the  lightning  form 
of  a  hundred  hideous  and  im-Christian  sins. 
For  a  want  of  patience,  a  want  of  kindness, 


Ubc  wbole  cross  is  more 


casilg  carrtcD 
tban  tbe  bait 


Natural  Law 
Mortification 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  113 

a  want  of  generosity,  a  want  of  courtesy,  a 
want  of  unselfishness,  are  all  instantaneously 
symbolized  in  one  flash  of  Temper. 

The   Greatest  Tiling  in  the  World. 


A  rabid  Temperance  advocate  is  often  the 
poorest  of  creatures,  flourishing  on  a  single 
virtue,  and  quite  oblivious  that  his  Temper- 
ance is  making  a  worse  man  of  him,  and  not 
a  better. 

The  Changed  Life. 


temptation 

Spiritual  life  is  the  sum  total  of  the  func- 
tions which  resist  sin.  The  soul's  atmosphere 
is  the  daily  trial,  circumstance,  and  tempta- 
tion of  the  world.  And  as  it  is  life  alone 
which  gives  the  plant  power  to  utilize  the  ele- 
ments, and  as,  without  it,  they  destroy  it,  so 
it  is  the  spiritual  life  alone  which  gives  the 
soul  power  to  utilize  temptation  and  trial  ; 
and  without  it  they  destroy  the  soul.  How 
shall  we  escape  if  we  refuse  to  exercise  these 
functions  —  in  other  words,  if  we  neglect  ? 

Natural  Law  :  "  Degeneration." 


114  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

Theism  is  the  easiest  of  all  religions  to 
get,  but  the  most  difficult  to  keep.  Individ- 
uals have  kept  it,  but  nations  never.  Socrates 
and  Aristotle,  Cicero  and  Epictetus,  had  a 
theistic  religion  ;  Greece  and  Rome  had  none. 
And  even  after  getting  what  seems  like  a  firm 
place  in  the  minds  of  men  its  unstable  equili- 
brium sooner  or  later  betrays  itself.  On  the 
one  hand,  Theism  has  always  fallen  into  the 
wildest  Polytheism,  or,  on  the  other,  into  the 
blankest  Atheism. 

Natural  Law :  "  Death." 

Theologies  —  and  I  am  not  speaking  dis- 
respectfully of  theology  ;  theology  is  as  scien- 
tific a  thing  as  any  other  science  of  facts  — 
but  theologies  are  human  versions  of  Divine 
truths,  and  hence  the  varieties  of  the  versions 
and  the  inconsistencies  of  them. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

"  Seekest  thou  great  things  for  thyself  "i  " 
said  the  prophet.  ^^  Seek  them  not.''  Why? 
Because  there  is  no  greatness  in  things. 
Things  cannot  be  great.  The  only  greatness 
is  unselfish  love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World, 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  115 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  think  ;  it  is  a  better 
thing  to  work.  It  is  a  better  thing  to  do 
good. 

How  to  Learn  How. 


If  we  can  carry  away  the  mere  lessons  of 
toleration,  and  leave  behind  us  our  censorious- 
ness,  and  criticalness,  and  harsh  judgments 
upon  one  another,  and  excommunicating  of 
everybody  except  those  who  think  exactly  as 
we  do,  the  time  we  shall  spend  here  will  not 
be  the  least  useful  joarts  of  our  lives. 

How  to  Learn  How. 


^ranafioftttation 

I  confess  that  even  when  in  the  first  dim 
vision  the  organizing  hand  of  Law  moved 
among  the  unordered  truths  of  my  Spiritual 
World,  poor  and  scantily  furnished  as  it  was, 
there  seemed  to  come  over  it  the  beauty  of 
a  transfiguration.  The  change  was  as  great 
as  from  the  old  chaotic  world  of  Pythagoras 
to  the  symmetrical  and  harmonious  universe 
of  Newton. 

Natural  Law-'  "Preface." 


116  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

Great  trials  come  at  lengthened  intervals, 
and  we  rise  to  breast  them  ;  but  it  is  the  petty 
friction  of  our  every-day  life  with  one  another 
—  the  jar  of  business  or  of  work,  the  discord 
of  the  domestic  circle,  the  collapse  of  our  am- 
bition, the  crossing  of  our  will,  or  the  taking 
down  of  our  conceit  —  which  makes  inward 
peace  impossible.  Pax  Vohiscum. 

^ru0t 

To  be  trusted  is  to  be  saved.  And  if  we 
try  to  influence  or  elevate  others,  we  shall 
soon  see  that  success  is  in  proportion  to  their 
belief  of  our  belief  in  them.  For  the  respect 
of  another  is  the  first  restoration  of  the  self- 
respect  a  man  has  lost ;  our  ideal  of  what  he 
is  becomes  to  him  the  hope  and  pattern  of 
what  he  may  become. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

He  who  loves  will  love  Truth  not  less  than 
men.  He  will  rejoice  in  the  Truth  —  rejoice 
not  in  what  he  has  been  taught  to  believe; 
not  in  this  Church's  doctrine  or  in  that ;  not 
in  this  ism  or  in  that  ism ;  but  "  in  the 
Truth."  He  will  accept  only  what  is  real; 
he  will  strive  to  get  at  facts  ;  he  will  search 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  117 

for  Truth  with  a  humble  and  unbiassed  mind, 
and  cherish  whatever  he  finds  at  any  sacri- 
fice. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


txxxi^  not  a  ^ixi^xx^^ 

There  is  no  more  important  lesson  that  we 
have  to  carry  with  us  than  that  truth  is  not 
to  be  found  in  what  I  have  been  taught. 
That  is  not  truth.  Truth  is  not  what  I  have 
been  taught.  If  it  were  so,  that  would  apply 
to  the  Mormon,  it  would  apply  to  the  Brah- 
man, it  would  apply  to  the  Buddhist.  Truth 
would  be  to  everybody  just  what  he  had  been 
taught.  Therefore  fet  us  dismiss  from  our 
minds  the  predisposition  to  regard  that  which 
we  have  been  brought  up  in  as  being  neces- 
sarily the  truth.  I  must  say  it  is  very  hard 
to  shake  one's  self  free  altogether  from  that. 
I  suppose  it  is  impossible. 

How  to  Learn  How. 


Unit^ 

Character  is  a  unity,  and  all  the  virtues 
must  advance  together  to  make  the  perfect 
man. 

The  Changed  Life. 


118  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

You  can  take  nothing  greatei  to  the  hea- 
then world  than  the  impress  and  reflection  of 
the  Love  of  God  upon  your  character.  That 
is  the  universal  language. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

The  very  confession  of  the  Unknowable  is 
itself  the  dull  recognition  of  an  Environment 
for  which  they  feel  they  lack  the  correspond- 
ence. It  is  this  want  that  makes  their  God 
the  Unknown  God.  And  it  is  this  that  makes 
them  dead. 

Natural  Law :  "  Death." 

Is  it  hopeless  to  point  out  that  one  of  the 
most  recognizable  characteristics  of  life  is  its 
unrecognizableness,  and  that  the  very  token 
of  its  spiritual  nature  lies  in  its  being  beyond 
the  grossness  of  our  eyes  ? 

Natural  Law:  "  Conformity  to  Type." 

IXnxtst 

What  are  the  chief  causes  of  Unrest  ?  If 
you  know  yourself,  you  will  answer  Pride, 
Selfishness,    Ambition.     As    you   look    back 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 


119 


upon  the  past  years  of  your  life,  is  it  not  true 
that  its  unhappiness  has  chiefly  come  from 
the  succession  of  personal  mortifications  and 
almost  trivial  disappointments  which  the  in- 
tercourse of  life  has  brought  you  ? 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


€^t  Unseen 

The  true  greatness  of  Law  lies  in  its  vision 
of  the  Unseen.  Law  in  the  visible  is  the  in- 
visible in  the  visible. 

Natural  Law :  "  Introduction." 


Unaeffifl^ness 

I  heard  this  definition  the  other  day  of  a 
Christian  man  by  a  cynic:  "A  Christian 
man  is  a  man  whose  great  aim  in  life  is  a  self- 
ish desire  to  save  his  own  soul,  who  in  order 
to  do  that,  goes  regularly  to  church,  and 
whose  supreme  hope  is  to  get  to  heaven  when 
he  dies."  This  reminds  one  of  Professor 
Huxley's  examination  paper  in  which  the 
question  was  put — "What  is  a  lobster?" 
One  student  replied  that  a  lobster  was  a  red 
fish  which  moves  backward.  The  examiner 
noted  that  this  was  a  very  good  answer  but 
for  three  things :  In  the  first  place,  a  lobster 


120  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

was  not  a  fish  ;  second,  it  was  not  red  ;  and 
third,  it  did  not  move  backward.  If  there  is 
anything  that  a  Christian  is  not,  it  is  one  who 
has  a  selfish  desire  to  save  his  own  soul.  The 
one  thing  which  Christianity  tries  to  extirpate 
from  a  man's  nature  is  selfishness,  even  though 
it  be  the  losing  of  his  own  soul. 

What  is  a  Christian  f 

€^t  (pine 

The  Vine  was  the  Eastern  symbol  of  Joy. 
It  was  its  fruit  that  made  glad  the  heart  of 
man.     Yet,  however  innocent   that  gladness 

—  for  the  expressed  juice  of  the  grape  was 
the  common  drink  at  every  peasant's  board 

—  the  gladness  was  only  a  gross  and  j^assing 
thing.  This  was  not  true  happiness,  and  the 
vine  of  the  Palestine  vineyards  was  not  the 
true  vine.      Christ  was  "  the  true  Vine." 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World, 

(gitaftt^ 

Vitality  has  much  in  common  with  such 
forces  as  magnetism  and  electricity,  but  there 
is  one  inviolable  distinction  between  them  — 
that  Life  is  permanently  fixed  and  rooted  in 
the  organism.  The  doctrines  of  conservation 
and  transformation  of  energy,  that  is  to  say, 
do  not  hold  for  Vitality.  The  electrician  can 
demaiiuetize  a  bar  of  iron  —  that  is,  he  can 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  121 

transfer  its  energy  of  magnetism  into  some- 
thing else  —  heat,  or  motion,  or  light — and 
then  re-form  these  back  into  magnetism.  For 
magnetism  has  no  root,  no  individuality,  no 
fixed  indwelling.  But  the  biologist  cannot 
devitalize  a  plant  or  an  animal  and  revivify 
it  again. 

Natural  Law :  "  Conformity  to  Type." 

There  is  the  voice  of  God  and  the  voice 
of  Nature.  I  cannot  be  wrong  if  I  listen  to 
them.  Sometimes,  when  uncertain  of  a  voice 
from  its  very  loudness,  we  catch  the  missing 
syllable  in  the  echo.  In  God  and  Nature  we 
have  Voice  and  Echo.  When  I  hear  both, 
I  am  assured.  My  sense  of  hearing  does  not 
betray  me  twice.  I  recognize  the  Voice  in 
the  Echo ;  the  Echo  makes  me  certain  of 
the  Voice  ;  I  listen  and  I  know. 

Natural  Laio :  "  Eternal  Life." 

n^^ofe  or  %<xi\ 

The  failure  to  regard  the  exclusive  claims 
of  Christ  as  more  than  accidental,  rhetorical, 
or  ideal ;  the  failure  to  discern  the  essential 
difference  between  his  Kingdom  and  all  other 
systems  based  on  the  lines  of  natural  relijj- 
ion,  and  therefore  merely  Organic;  in  a  word, 
the  general  neglect  of  the  claims  of  Christ  as 


122  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

the  Founder  of  a  new  and  higher  Kingdom, 
• —  these  have  taken  the  very  heart  from  the 
religion  of  Christ,  and  left  its  evangel  with- 
out power  to  impress  or  bless  the  world. 
Until  even  religious  men  see  the  uniqueness 
of  Christ's  society,  until  they  acknowledge  to 
the  full  extent  its  claim  to  be  nothing  less 
than  a  new  Kingdom,  they  will  continue  the 
hopeless  attempt  to  live  for  two  Kingdoms  at 
once.  And  hence  the  value  of  a  more  ex- 
plicit classification.  For  probably  the  most 
of  the  difficulties  of  trying  to  live  the  Chris- 
tian life  arise  from  attempting  to  half-live  it. 
Natural  Law :  "  Classification." 

The  authority  of  Authority  is  waning. 
This  is  a  plain  fact.  And  it  was  inevitable. 
Authority  —  man's  Authority,  that  is  —  is 
for  children.  And  there  necessarily  comes  a 
time  when  they  add  to  the  question,  What 
shall  I  do  ?  or,  What  shall  I  believe  ?  the 
adult's  interrogation  —  Why?  Now,  this 
question  is  sacred,  and  must  be  answered. 
Natural  Laiv:  "Introduction." 

Each  day,  each  hour,  demands  a  further 
motion  and  readjustment  for  the  soul.  A 
telescope  in  an  observatory  follows  a  star  by 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 


123 


clockwork,  but  the  clockwork  of  the  soul  is 
called  the  Will.  Hence,  while  the  soul  in 
passivity  reflects  the  Image  of  the  Lord,  the 
Will  in  intense  activity  holds  the  mirror  in 
position,  lest  the  drifting  motion  of  the  world 
bear  it  beyond  the  line  of  vision.  To  "  fol- 
low Christ"  is  largely  to  keep  the  soul  in 
such  position  as  will  allow  for  the  motion  of 
the  earth.  And  this  calculated  counteracting 
of  the  movements  of  a  world,  this  holding  of 
the  mirror  exactly  opposite  to  the  Mirrored, 
this  steadying  of  the  faculties  unerringly, 
through  cloud  and  earthquake,  fire  and  sword, 
is  the  stupendous  co-operating  labor  of  the 
Will. 

The  Changed  Life. 

In  the  Spiritual  World  he  will  be  wise  who 
courts  acquaintance  with  the  most  ordinary 
and  transparent  facts  in  Nature. 

Natural  Law :  "Environment." 


If  God  is  spending  work  upon  a  Christian, 
let  him  be  still  and  know  that  it  is  God.  And 
if  he  wants  work,  he  will  find  it  there  —  in 
the  being  still. 

Natural  Law :  '-Growth." 


124  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

All  the  work  of  the  world  is  merely  a  tak- 
ing advantage  of  energies  already  there. 

Natural  Law :  "  Growth." 


What  is  the  relation  between  growth  and 
work  in  a  boy  ?  Consciously,  there  is  no  re- 
lation at  all.  The  boy  never  thinks  of  con- 
necting his  work  with  his  growth.  Work,  in 
fact,  is  one  thing,  and  growth  another ;  and  it 
is  so  in  the  spiritual  life.  If  it  be  asked, 
therefore,  Is  the  Christian  wrong  in  these 
ceaseless  and  agonizing  efforts  after  growth  ? 
the  answer  is.  Yes,  he  is  quite  wrong,  or  at 
least  he  is  quite  mistaken.  When  a  boy 
takes  a  meal  or  denies  himself  indigestible 
things,  he  does  not  say,  "  All  this  will  min- 
ister to  my  growth " ;  or  when  he  runs  a 
race  he  does  not  say,  "  This  will  help  the 
next  cubit  of  my  stature."  It  may  or  it 
may  not  be  true  that  these  things  will  help 
his  stature,  but  if  he  thinks  of  this,  his  idea 
of  growth  is  morbid.  And  this  is  the  point 
we  are  dealing  with.  His  anxiety  here  is 
altogether  irrelevant  and  superfluous.  Nat- 
ure is  far  more  bountiful  than  we  think. 
When  she  gives  us  energy,  she  asks  none  of 
it  back  to  expend  on  our  own  growth.  She 
will  attend  to  that.     "  Give  your  work,"  she 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  125 

says,  "  and  your  anxiety  to  others  ;  trust  me 
to  add  the  cubits  to  your  stature." 

Natural  Law  :  '^  Growth." 


There  is  a  great  deal  in  the  world  that  is 
delightful  and  beautiful,  there  is  a  great  deal 
in  itthat  is  great  and  engrossing;  but  it  will 
not  last.  All  that  is  in  the  world— the  lust  of 
the  eye,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  pride 
of  life  —  are  but  for  a  little  while.  Love  not 
the  world  therefore.  Nothing  that  it  contains 
is  worth  the  life  and  consecration  of  an  immor- 
tal soul.  The  immortal  soul  must  give  itself 
to  something  that  is  immortal. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  Worlu. 

It  is  "  life  in  this  world  "  that  is  to  be 
hated.  For  life  in  this  world  implies  con- 
formity to  this  world.  It  may  not  mean 
pursuing  worldly  pleasures  or  mixing  with 
worldly  sets,  but  a  subtler  thing  than  that  — 
a  silent  deference  to  worldly  opinion  ;  an  al- 
most unconscious  lowering  of  religious  tone 
to  the  level  of  the  worldly-religious  world 
around;  a  subdued  resistance  to  the  soul's 
delicate  promptings  to  greater  consecration, 
out   of   deference   to  "breadth"  or  fear  of 


126  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

ridicule.  These,  and  such  things,  are  what 
Clirist  tells  us  we  must  hate.  For  these 
things  are  of  the  very  essence  of  worldliness. 

Natural  Law :  "  Eternal  Life." 


The  world  is  only  a  thing  that  is  ;  it  is  not. 
It  is  a  thing  that  teaches,  yet  not  even  a  thing 
—  a  show  that  shows,  a  teaching  shadow. 
However  useless  the  .demonstration  other- 
wise, philosophy  does  well  in  proving  that 
matter  is  a  non-entity.  We  work  with  it  as 
the  mathematician  with  an  x.  The  reality  is 
alone  the  Spiritual.  "It  is  very  well  for 
physicists  to  speak  of  *  matter,'  but  for  men 
generally  to  call  this  '  a  material  world '  is 
an  absurdity.  Should  we  call  it  an  ic-world 
it  would  mean  as  much  —  viz.,  that  we  do 
not  know  what  it  is."  When  shall  we  learn 
the  true  mysticism  of  one  who  was  yet  far 
from  being  a  mystic  — "  We  look  not  at 
the  things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the  things 
wdiich  are  not  seen ;  for  the  things  which  are 
seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things  which  are 
not  seen  are  eternal "  ?  The  visible  is  the 
ladder  up  to  the  invisible;  the  temporal  is 
but  the  scaffolding  of  the  eternal.  And 
when  the  last  immaterial  souls  have  climbed 
through  this  material  to  God,  the  scaffolding 


HELPFUL    THOUGHTS  127 

shall  be  taken  down,  and  the  earth  dissolved 
with  fervent  heat  —  not  because  it  was  base, 
but  because  its  work  is  done. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Introduction." 

No  matter  what  may  be  the  moral  upright- 
ness of  man's  life,  the  honorableness  of  his 
career,  or  the  orthodoxy  of  his  creed,  if  he 
exercises  the  function  of  loving  the  world, 
that  defines  his  world  —  he  belongs  to  the 
Organic  Kingdom.  He  cannot  in  that  case 
belong  to  the  higher  Kingdom.  "  If  any 
man  love  the  world,  the  love  of  the  Father 
is  not  in  him."  After  all,  it  is  by  the  general 
bent  of  a  man's  life  —  by  his  heart-impulses 
and  secret  desires,  his  spontaneous  actions 
and  abiding  motives  —  that  his  generation  is 
declared. 

Natural  Law  :  "  Classification." 

Christ  saw  that  men  took  life  painfully. 
To  some  it  was  a  weariness,  to  others  a 
failure,  to  many  a  tragedy,  to  all  a  struggle 
and  a  pain.  How  to  carry  this  burden  of  life 
had  been  the  whole  world's  problem.  It  is 
still  the  whole  world's  problem.  And  here 
is  Christ's  solution  :  "  Carry  it  as  I  do.  Take 
life  as  I  take  it.     Look  at  it  from  My  point 


128  HELPFUL    THOUGHTS 

of  view.  Interpret  it  upon  My  principles. 
Take  My  yoke  and  learn  of  Me,  and  you 
will  find  it  easy.  For  My  yoke  is  easy, 
works  easily,  sits  right  upon  the  shoulders, 
and  therefore  My  burden  is  light." 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

%oU  of  C^xiBi 

Did  you  ever  stop  to  ask  what  a  yoke  is 
really  for  ?  Is  it  to  be  a  burden  to  the  ani- 
mal which  wears  it  ?  It  is  just  the  opposite. 
It  is  to  make  its  burden  light.  Attached  to 
the  oxen  in  any  other  way  than  by  a  yoke 
the  plough  would  be  intolerable.  AYorked 
by  means  of  a  yoke  it  is  light.  A  yoke  is 
not  an  instrument  of  torture :  it  is  an  instru- 
ment of  mercy.  It  is  not  a  malicious  contriv- 
ance for  making  work  hard :  it  is  a  gentle 
device  to  make  hard  labor  light.  It  is  not 
meant  to  give  pain,  but  to  save  pain.  And 
yet  men  speak  of  the  yoke  of  Christ  as  if  it 
were  a  slavery,  and  look  upon  those  who 
wear  it  as  objects  of  compassion. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

THE    END 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


B    000  007  861     8 


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